Shadows and Starlight
by Anidori-Isilee
Summary: A dark prophecy hints at a coming danger, with one cat as the 5 Clans' only hope. Can Spottedpaw fulfill StarClan's prophecy, or are the Clans doomed to destruction by the most dangerous enemy they have ever faced;an enemy out for vengeance? Review please
1. Allegiances

**Yay! My first fanfiction! Hope you like it! PLEASE REVIEW - NO FLAMERS PLEASE!!!! *****Gasp!* I almost forgot the disclaimer! Anidori-Isilee doesn't own warriors (although I wish I did…). All the characters in ****Shadows and Starlight ****are mine, though! **

**P.S. It got a bit messed up when I uploaded it :(**

**  
Allegiances**

**_ThunderClan_**

_Leader _

**Whitestar** – large, muscular white tom with green eyes and left ear torn into a deep "V" shape

_Deputy _

**Icestorm**–large white tom with yellow eyes

_Medicine Cat_

**Jayflight**- smoky gray tom with bright blue eyes

_Warriors _

**Rosethorn**- reddish she-cat with white muzzle and amber eyes

**Flameclaw**- strong ginger tom with light orange pelt, green eyes, and long, hooked claws

**Whi****t****efrost**- very light gray she-cat with white muzzle, paws, underbelly, and blue eyes

**Redfoot**- swift, dark ginger tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Spottedpaw**

**Bluestorm**- gray-blue tom with blue eyes

**Apprentice, Cloverpaw**

**Raventail**-tall, sleek charcoal-black she-cat with green eyes

**Apprentice, Fawnpaw**

**Sunspark**- lean golden brown tom with dark green eyes

**Brightwing**- light gray and white she-cat with blue eyes

**Sandfur**- pale ginger tom with a sand colored pelt and pale green eyes

**Blazepelt**- dark reddish ginger tom with amber eyes

**Appletail**- white and ginger she-cat with green eyes

**Smokefoot**- very dark gray tom with amber eyes

**Weaseltail**- short-haired dark brown tom with amber eyes and long, thin tail

**Hawkflight**- tall ginger tom with green eyes

**Apprentice, Crowpaw**

**Lakefur**- long-haired blue-gray tom with dark blue eyes

**Foxfur**- dark ginger tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Leopardpaw**

**Mouseleap**- wiry, long-limbed dusky brown she-cat with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Stormpaw**

**Reedtail**- pale tabby tom with amber eyes and a long, thin tail

**Silverstreak**- silver tabby she-cat with blue eyes

**Splashpelt**- tortoiseshell and white she-cat with playful sky-blue eyes

_Apprentices_

**Cloverpaw** - white she-cat with ginger patches and green eyes

**Crowpaw**- smoky gray tom with amber eyes

**Leopardpaw**- mottled golden tom with amber eyes

**Fawnpaw**- dappled light brown she-cat with amber eyes

**Spottedpaw**- pretty black-and-white she-cat with amber eyes

**Stormpaw**- gray-and-white tom with blue eyes

_Queens _

**Doveflight**- light gray she-cat with blue eyes

**Snowcloud**- all-white she-cat with blue eyes

**Dawnfur**- cream she-cat with green eyes

_Elders_

**Whitewhisker**- very old gray-and-white tom with blue eyes; oldest cat in ThunderClan

**Cinderfoot**- old, solid dark gray tom with yellow eyes

**Dapplepelt**- mottled dark brown she-cat with amber eyes

**__**

ShadowClan

_Leader_

**Sablestar** – beautiful she-cat with mottled dark brown coat and amber eyes

_Deputy_

**Oakfall**–small brown tabby tom with amber eyes

_Medicine Cat_

**Pinefur** – dark brown tabby tom with green eyes

_Warriors_

**Robinflight**- dark ginger she-cat with amber eyes

**Darkwhisker**- very dark brown tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Cinderpaw**

**Scorchfur**- long-limbed, lean black tom with brown underbelly and amber eyes

**Tawnyfur**- tortoiseshell she-cat with amber eyes

**Raincloud**- dark gray tom with blue eyes

**Nightbloom**-tall black she-cat with green eyes

**Apprentice, Swallowpaw**

**Fernfrost**- gray she-cat with darker specks and green eyes

**Icefall**- pure white tom with ice-blue eyes

**Apprentice, Blackpaw**

**Sandstone**- reddish ginger tom with pale green eyes

_Apprentices_

**Cinderpaw** – dark gray tom with amber eyes

**Blackpaw**- all-black tom with amber eyes

**Swallowpaw**- brown tabby she-cat with green eyes

_Queens_

**Breezetail**- black-and-white she-cat with amber eyes

_Elders_

**Slatefur**- dark gray tom with blue eyes

**Brownfur**- brown tabby tom with yellow eyes

**__**

WindClan

_Leader _

**Cloudstar** – white tom with amber eyes and black tipped tail

_Deputy_

**Duskpelt**–dusky brown tom with amber eyes

_Medicine_ Cat

**Mudstripe**- brown tabby tom with darker stripes and amber eyes

_Warriors_

**Nightstripe**- pale brown she-cat with a dark stripe along her spine

**Ashtail**- gray tabby she-cat with blue eyes

**Apprentice, Cinderpaw**

**Sparrowflight**- brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes

**Brookflow**- light gray she-cat with blue eyes

**Apprentice, Spottedpaw**

**Sootbird**- smoky gray tom with amber eyes

**Mothflight**- gray and white she-cat with green eyes

**Apprentice, Fawnpaw**

**Brightflower**- tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes

**Smallpoppy**- white and ginger she-cat with green eyes

**Rushingwind**- black and white tom with amber eyes

_Apprentices_

**Kestrelpaw** – dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes

**Swiftpaw**- black and white tom with amber eyes

**Heatherpaw**- brown tabby she-cat with green eyes

_Queens_

**Birdsong**- pretty brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes

_Elders_

**Gorsepelt**- gray and white tom with amber eyes

**__**

RiverClan

_Leader _

**Ivystar** – mottled dark brown she-cat with green eyes

_Deputy_

**Lionclaw**–golden tabby tom with amber eyes

_Medicine_ Cat

**Heronflight**- gray and white she-cat with unusual blue eyes

_Warriors_

**Mistyfur **- very pale gray she-cat with blue eyes

**Deerflight**- dappled brown she-cat with amber eyes

**Barkstripe**- brown tabby tom with amber eyes

**Rowanclaw**- reddish ginger tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Ripplepaw**

**Shadefur**- dark gray tom with blue eyes

**Apprentice, Larkpaw**

**Otterpelt**- light brown she-cat with green eyes

**Apprentice, Dapplepaw**

**Swanflight**- white she-cat with green eyes

**Hawkfeather**- reddish ginger tom with pale blue eyes

_Apprentices_

**Larkpaw** –gray she-cat with darker flecks and blue eyes

**Ripplepaw**- gray tabby tom with blue eyes

**Dapplepaw**- tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes

_Queens_

**Goldenpelt**- mottled golden she-cat with amber eyes

**Nightpool**- black and white she-cat with blue eyes

_Elders_

**Thistletail**- reddish ginger tom with amber eyes

**Moonpelt**- white she-cat with green eyes

**__**

SkyClan

_Leader_

**Bramblestar** – pretty brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes

_Deputy_

**Snowfall**–white and gray she-cat with ice-blue eyes

_Medicine_ Cat

**Lilyfoot**- light blue-gray she-cat with blue eyes, white legs and tail tip

**Apprentice, Littlepaw**

_Warriors_

**Poppynose**- ginger and white she-cat with startlingly pink nose

**Brightcloud**- tortoiseshell she-cat with amber eyes

**Cloudpelt**- white tom with dark blue eyes

**Apprentice, Berrypaw**

**Eagleflight**- dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Rosepaw**

**Rainsong**- dark gray tabby she-cat with blue eyes

**Apprentice, Duskpaw**

**Thistletail**- dark brown tom with amber eyes

**Icefang**- all-white tom with ice-blue eyes

**Mintfur**- very light gray she-cat with light green eyes

**Barkstripe** – dark brown tabby tom with green eyes

**Badgerfang**- black and white tom with amber eyes

**Hailstorm**- white tom with amber eyes

_Apprentices_

**Berrypaw** – pale tabby tom with startlingly pink nose and amber eyes

**Rosepaw**- cream she-cat with bright oink nose and green eyes

**Littlepaw**- small, slim silver tabby she-cat with amber eyes

**Duskpaw**- dusky brown tabby tom with amber eyes

_Queens_

**Brookflow**- silver tabby she-cat with blue eyes

_Elders_

**Flowertail**- gray-and-white she-cat with green eyes

**Seedfur**- speckled gray tom with amber eyes

**__**

Cats Outside Clans

**Petal**- gray she-cat with blue eyes

**Cloud**- gray and white tom with amber eyes

**Bane-**sleek,tall brown tabby tom with amber eyes


	2. Prologue

**Okay, here's my first chapter! Or prologue, really...I hope you like it!!! I should have Chapter 1 uploaded in a few days or so.  
Anidori-Isilee doesn't own Warriors!****  
**  
**_Prologue_**

A dark gray tom huddled in the moonlit clearing, his fur bristling and blue eyes fixed on a tortoiseshell cat perched calmly on a great silver boulder with its tail curled neatly under its paws. Four great oaks towered high above the gray cat's head, almost seeming to touch the hot, white stars in the sky. The leaves were bleached silver from the moonlight; everything else was swallowed up by deep black shadows. The tortoiseshell cat spoke, her unblinking green eyes staring straight at the gray tom.

"_StarClan has seen a time of great darkness and uncertainty coming. Only the warrior of shadows and starlight, in the Clan but not of it, can see what lies hidden to save the Clans." _

"What does it mean?" the tom snapped, hiding his alarm behind anger. "How will I know this cat? When is the trouble coming? Tell me, Brightspots!"

"StarClan cannot see all," Brightspots gently reminded. "We cannot tell you when or how the trouble will come. But it will be terrible when it does. The chosen cat will need the courage of LionClan, the cleverness of LeopardClan, and the strength of TigerClan to succeed. Do not be afraid, Jayflight; StarClan will walk with you every step of the way. You will know the cat when she comes; you will meet her soon. Good-bye, my old apprentice." As soon as she finished speaking, Brightspots faded into the shadows until only her scent lingering in the still night air showed she had been there. Jayflight crouched still as stone in the silver glade, his blue eyes shadowed with a horror only he could see.

"What in the name of StarClan can I tell Whitestar?" he murmured.

* * *

Petal lay stretched out on her side, her soft gray fur slicked with sweat. Her jaws gaped in a soundless wail of agony as her paws scrabbled uselessly at the dirt, her pale blue eyes glazed over with pain and terror. Her kits were coming, and it was all going wrong!

Her pelt rippled as another powerful spasm wracked her body; her nostrils were filled with the scent of blood. The soft green ferns above her waved as she convulsed again.

There was no one to care for or protect Petal as she gave birth. The kits' father had vanished; Petal liked to think that he had died rather than abandoned them, because the thought that her beloved Cloud had left her and their unborn kits hurt more than she thought anything ever could. Petal's every rib showed underneath her fur and her light blue eyes were sunken into her face; she couldn't remember what it felt like to be full-fed. As her time approached, she had found it harder and harder to find food for her and her kits, as her round belly made her slow and off-balance. She'd gotten weaker and weaker until she couldn't catch prey for herself. The last meal she could remember having was the last few mouthfuls on a long-dead rat carcass early yesterday.

She let out another piercing shriek, this one fainter than the others as another tremor made her shudder. She had pushed two into the world; another was on its way.

The gray she-cat let out a trembling gasp and went limp as the last kit was born. Petal tried to lift her head, but she just couldn't move at the moment. A feeling of love washed over her, briefly hiding the agony, as she heard her kits' voices for the first and only time, raised in tiny, high-pitched mews. The joy was quickly followed by a wave of grief when she realized there were only two voices, not three. One had not made it.

Her ears twitched feebly as she heard a twig snap somewhere in the distance. A faint yowl drifted on the slight breeze. Alarmed, she tried to push herself to her feet, but her paws fumbled weakly until she stopped, gasping for breath._ My kits! Must protect my kits…_ She panted for a moment, and tried again, but she couldn't seem to get herself to stand.

The bracken on the other side of the tiny clearing shook as four fearsome-looking cats leaped out of the shadows. Their pelts were criss-crossed with the pale scars of many battles, their eyes narrowed in anger. Petal felt herself tremble in terror. She shook her head, fighting the darkness that was clouding her sight and her mind, making it hard for her to focus. _My kits… Must protect…my kits…_

"So you are the crow-food eating rogue who's been stealing our prey!" snarled the largest, a muscular white tomcat, as he bounded into the sunlight.

Petal dimly heard the words and felt a flicker of confusion. What in the world were they talking about? She'd just crossed into their territory that morning. She never ate their prey…

A second voice drifted through the thick haze that clouded Petal's mind.

"So much blood!" The shocked mew belonged to a wiry dusky brown she-cat. "Nettlepaw, go fetch Jayflight! This cat needs help!" The youngest cat, a little brown tabby, raced back through the bracken, its soft kitten fur fluffed up in fear. The lean, long-limbed she-cat whirled to face the white tom. "Don't claw her, Icestorm!"

"And why not, Mouseleap?" The great white tom swung his head around and glared at the she-cat, sheathing and unsheathing his long, curved claws.

"Just look at her!" Mouseleap said. "She probably couldn't help herself. She looks like she hasn't had a decent meal in weeks!"

Icestorm looked closely at Petal, and his yellow eyes softened slightly. The last cat, a young pale tabby tom, padded past him and sniffed Petal's flank. Suddenly his head jerked up as he found the three tiny bundles at Petal's side, too tired and weak to make any more noise.

"She's got kits!" He hissed to the others.

Mouseleap and Icestorm bounded to the tabby's side.

"You're right!" Icestorm meowed in shock.

"The kit-scent must have been hidden by the smell of all this blood," Mouseleap whispered. She faced the others. "Remember what Jayflight did to Mistyfur's kits?" She picked up the biggest, a gray and white tom, by the scruff of its neck and gently set in down in front of the tabby tom. "Lick its fur the wrong way." She picked up the second, a white and black she-cat, and set it in front of Icestorm. "You too." The great white cat bowed his head and began swiping his tongue over the kit's fur.

Mouseleap took the third for herself; after a few moments she paused and sniffed its fur. "This little one has passed into the ranks of StarClan," she murmured, her eyes dull with grief. Mouseleap stood up, picked up the kit again, and placed it by its mother's side under the shade of the cool green ferns. Petal's rasping breaths were coming slower and slower, as the wiry she-cat pressed herself against Petal's other side, gently licking her around her ears. Petal longed to sink into the comforting black darkness that was surrounding her, but she knew she couldn't. Not yet.

"My kits…," she gasped. "Please... take care of my kits…."

"Nonsense," Mouseleap meowed briskly. "Our medicine cat is coming. He'll give you some herbs to make you better, and then you'll have a nice, long rest."

Icestorm padded over and stood over the two she-cats, the kit dangling from his mouth. He lightly set it down and comfortingly rasped his tongue over Mouseleap's ear. "She's not going to make it," he mewed softly. "And you know it." Mouseleap looked at him sadly and hung her head. Icestorm turned to Petal. "Don't worry. We'll take care of your kits." Petal couldn't find the strength to acknowledge his words with more than a tiny twitch of her ears, but Icestorm could see her gratefulness in her steady gaze.

Petal's dimming eyes briefly sparked to life as she looked at the kit Icestorm had set down in front of her to talk.

"Let me see all of them…..for the last time……" she murmured.

The pale tabby brought over the second kit and placed it next to its littermate. Petal's tongue rasped once over each of the tiny heads, and then gave a long sigh. Her flanks stopped moving, and her eyes dimmed.

Mouseleap looked up at her two companions, her eyes dark with sorrow. "She's dead," she whispered.

"But her kits aren't," Icestorm reminded her. "Although they might be, if we don't get them to camp soon." Mouseleap gently closed Petal's eyes, then stood up and picked up the second kit.

Just then, Nettlepaw and a smoky gray tom skidded into the clearing, the gray cat's jaws full of herbs. His bright blue eyes widened with shock as he set down his herbs. "Great StarClan," he whispered. Quickly recovering, he padded over to the dead she-cat, sniffing her flank. While he worked, Icestorm quickly told him what had happened.

"She just died, before you got here, along with her smallest kit," Mouseleap murmured.

"Herbs wouldn't have done her or the kit much good anyway," the gray tom said softly. "It seems that she was already dying when you found her, and the kit was stillborn." He moved on to inspect the other two kits. Suddenly he froze, every hair on his pelt bristling.

"What is it, Jayflight?" Icestorm mewed curiously.

The medicine cat forced his fur to lie flat on his shoulders, shaking his head quickly to clear it, and turned away from the surviving kits. "They're alive, but not for long. We need to get them to camp. Maybe Doveflight will nurse them," he suggested. "Icestorm, you and Mouseleap take the two kits to Doveflight. Make sure you tell her, and Whitestar for that matter, the situation. Reedtail, you stay and help me bury her."

Icestorm and Mouseleap dipped their heads and padded out of the clearing with the kits dangling from their mouths. "Come, Nettlepaw," Mouseleap mewed past her mouthful of fur. The little brown tabby leaped to his paws and followed, his amber eyes sadly looking back at the scene in the clearing once more as he padded away, tail drooping.

Reedtail dipped his head as well. "Of course, Jayflight," he meowed. Together they turned and dragged Petal's body into the center of the clearing, and dug a grave under the shade of the ferns where Petal had died. As they picked up her body again and gently arranged it in her grave beside the tiny body of the stillborn kit, Jayflight gave Petal a last lick, smoothing the ruffled gray fur.

"Don't worry," he murmured. "Your kits will have a home in ThunderClan."

As they buried Petal's body, Jayflight's thoughts turned to the last surviving kits. One, a tom, was grey and white…the other, white and black…of shadows and starlight.

* * *

"What in StarClan's name can we do to stop the darkness from coming?"

"Nothing. StarClan said that the warrior, in the Clan but not if it, of shadows and starlight, will be our only hope," Jayflight meowed.

"If this kit will be as powerful as you say-"

"She will be," Jayflight interrupted. "StarClan's prophecy was very clear concerning her appearance and what she will do. She fits the description perfectly! She was born to a loner, but will be raised in the Clan. It will be the only life she knows – she will be _in the clan but not of it_! And have you seen her fur? It's black and white – the _colors_ of shadows and starlight."

"There are other cats with white and black fur-"

"And how many of them are not Clan born, Whitestar?" Jayflight snapped.

Whitestar sighed wearily. "What do you suggest I say to the Clan?"

Jayflight twitched his ears as he thought. "Say nothing," he decided. "Such a prophecy would only scare everyone, and they would treat her differently because of it. Besides, the prophecy said a _warrior_, and she's just a kit still. The prophecy won't fulfill itself tomorrow. Treat her just as you would any other kit."

"And this prophecy said nothing about her brother?" Whitestar asked.

"No. StarClan never mentioned him," Jayflight replied.

"Okay…Will you tell me if StarClan shows you anything else?"

"I always do, Whitestar," Jayflight meowed over his shoulder as he left the den of ThunderClan's leader. "You can count on me."


	3. Chapter 1

**_Chapter One_**

Spottedkit peered eagerly out of the nursery, trembling with excitement. She and her brother had finally reached their sixth moon! At last, she was going from a 'kit to a 'paw…

Doveflight, their foster mother, padded up behind her and gave Spottedkit a final lick around the ears. "I'm so proud of both of you," she purred warmly, blue eyes gleaming.

Spottedkit struggled free from her tongue. _Honestly! We're not kits anymore! _"I'm an apprentice now! Apprentices don't get washed!" she meowed out loud, shaking her head irritably.

"Not yet, you aren't. Not until Whitestar makes you one," Doveflight mewed, though to Spottedkit's relief, she stopped washing her. Spottedkit turned around again to continue her vigil.

Her ears twitched as she heard one of Dawnfur's kits, Thistlekit or Sagekit, sigh sadly. She looked one last time towards Whitestar's den and padded over to the miserable-looking kits.

"You'll be apprentices before you know it!" she meowed encouragingly, trying to cheer them up.

"We're going to miss you!" Sagekit piped up sadly.

"Will you tell us all about being an apprentice?" Thistlekit begged."Please?"

"Yes, please!"

Spottedkit purred. "Of course I will, mousebrains. Tell you what – I'll teach you some hunting moves, okay?"

The two little kits bounced up and down in excitement, forgetting to be sad, and dashed to their mother to tell her the good news. Spottedkit eyed them in amusement. "Say good-bye to Stormpaw!" she called and turned back to her watch.

From behind the nursery's thick bramble screen, Whitestar padded out of his den underneath the Highrock and leaped to the top of the boulder in a single bound. Spottedkit watched the great white tom in awe. _Someday, maybe I'll be Clan leader, like Whitestar, _she thought, imagining herself as strong, brave and smart as the white Clan leader. _They'll call me Spottedstar then!_

Whitestar held his tail high as he called the familiar summons. Spottedkit shivered in anticipation. She and her brother had often heard him yowl out the age-old words from the nursery, but they hadn't been old enough to join the Clan meetings then.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highrock for a Clan meeting!"

Spottedkit scrambled out of her crouch, stretched her stiff muscles, and padded out of the nursery with Stormkit at her side and her mother at her heels. They took their place below the Highrock, Spottedkit sitting proudly beside her black and white fur had been washed until it gleamed in the fading sunlight. Ever since Snowcloud's kits had been made apprentices moons ago, she and Stormkit had waited impatiently for the day they would be made apprentices, too. She could feel Stormkit trembling with excitement by her side.

Cats came from every direction, warriors padding out of the warriors' den, apprentices getting up from where they were tussling by the stump that sat by their den, Jayflight trotting out of the fern tunnel that led to where he kept his herbs. Even the elders left the shade of their dead tree that rested over the elders' den and sat at the edge of the clearing, where they could hear but still be in the shade.

A few cats called out congratulations. Spottedkit lifted her chin in pride. Most cats didn't mind the fact that she and her brother were born to a loner; they were practically Clan cats anyway, since they were raised in ThunderClan since the moment they were born.

"I wonder who's going to be our mentors?" Stormkit whispered to his sister, his breath tickling her ear fur.

"Mousebrain!" Spottedkit muttered back. "Whitestar's going to tell everyone in a minute!"

Seeing the crestfallen look on his face, she felt a pang of guilt and swiped her tongue over his ear. "I'm sorry, Stormkit. I didn't mean it."

He licked her back. "I know." His face lit up with hope. "I hope my mentor's Mouseleap! She's such a great hunter…"

"Well, I hope mine's Icestorm," she whispered back. "Imagine having the Clan deputy as your mentor-" Spottedkit shut up and stared up attentively as Whitestar waved his tail for silence.

Whitestar gazed down on the two kits, his green eyes warm. "Today it is my pleasure to perform one of the most important ceremonies a leader can perform. Every Clan needs strong warriors to defend and fight for it, but even the greatest warrior must start as an apprentice before he or she can receive their warrior name. They must learn the warrior code, and how to fight and hunt and care for their Clan. Spottedkit and Stormkit have reached their sixth moon, and it is time for them to become apprentices of ThunderClan."

His eyes swept through the ranks of the cats before him, and Spottedkit felt the stares of her Clanmates scorch her fur, and heard one or two whispers from the crowd. She shyly dropped her gaze to the ground and shuffled her paws in the dirt, suddenly nervous with every cat watching her. Her brother pressed his flank to hers, and she felt a surge of courage. She lifted her chin again and looked up at Whitestar, trying to ignore all the staring eyes.

"I call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this kit. She would like to become a warrior of ThunderClan, but must first become an apprentice. Spottedkit, from this day forth, until you have earned your warrior name, you will be known as Spottedpaw. Redfoot, you are young, but all the Clan knows of your strength; remember that you can always turn to the senior warriors for advice as you mentor Spottedpaw. Sandfur was your mentor, and I hope that his courage and skill will pass through you to your new apprentice."

"Thank you, Whitestar." Redfoot, a sleek dark ginger tom, stood and padded to where the newly named Spottedpaw sat. Spottedpaw stretched out her head and awkwardly touched noses with her new mentor. _He's not Icestorm, but at least he seems nice_, Spottedpaw thought. Redfoot took his place at the side of his new apprentice. Spottedpaw sat up even straighter, her eyes shining with joy. _I'm going to be the best warrior the Clans have ever seen!_ she vowed.

Whitestar waved his tail for attention before the Clan could call out Spottedpaw's name. "We have another young kit who wishes to be trained as a warrior. Stormkit, you will now be known as Stormpaw. Your mentor will be Mouseleap."

A dusky brown she-cat leapt to her paws, her eyes glowing with pride and happiness.

"Mouseleap, you have learned loyalty and wisdom from your mentor, Flameclaw. I hope you will pass on these traits to Stormpaw."

"I will, Whitestar." Mouseleap did as Redfoot, touching her nose to Stormpaw's and sitting by his side. Stormpaw quivered with delight, while Doveflight watched with motherly pride.

"Spottedpaw! Stormpaw! Spottedpaw! Stormpaw!"


	4. Chapter 2

**_Chapter Two_**

The newly named Spottedpaw's Clanmates yowled the names of the new apprentices in approval, while Spottedpaw lifted her chin and looked around proudly.

Whitestar leaped down from the Highrock, signally that the meeting was over. Gradually, the cats began to return to their duties. One or two padded up to congratulate the new mentors.

Spottedpaw purred happily. "We made it! We're apprentices now!" she mewed gleefully. Redfoot flashed her a look, his amber eyes glinting with amusement, and left to go talk to a white warrior.

Stormpaw scrambled to his feet and began to pad in the direction of his new mentor. "I'm going to talk to Mouseleap for a moment!" he mewed. "I'll be right back." Spottedpaw watched him go and felt a flicker of uncertainty. _Should I go find Redfoot or go find the other apprentices? _She gulped. _I hope they like me…_

"Hi." Spottedpaw jumped as a voice sounded right next to her ear. She looked up, startled, and stared into a pair of bright green eyes.

"I'm Fawnpaw. Do you want to show you the apprentices' den?" Fawnpaw was a pretty dappled light brown she-cat. Spottedpaw vaguely remembered her being made an apprentice when Spottedpaw and her brother were one moon old.

Spottedpaw nodded shyly, accepting the invitation with a rush of relief. "Sure." She glanced at where her mentor sat, talking with the white senior warrior she now recognized as Icestorm, the Clan deputy. "But I'd better check with Redfoot first."

"Sure. I'll wait." Fawnpaw sat and curled her tail neatly over her paws.

Spottedpaw padded over to her mentor and waited politely until he noticed her.

"What's up?" Redfoot meowed.

Spottedpaw relaxed at bit at his friendly tone. "Do you mind if I go with Fawnpaw?" Spottedpaw asked shyly, flicking her tail to where her new fried was waiting. "She's going to show me the apprentices' den."

Redfoot stood and stretched. "Not at all. I was going to take you around the territory, but it's too late for that." He yawned. "Go on."

She dipped her head in respect and ran back to where Fawnpaw sat. "He said yes!"

"Great!" Fawnpaw leaped to her paws. "Come on; I'll introduce you to the other apprentices."

"Wait! Can I say something to my brother?"

Fawnpaw nodded.

Spottedpaw bounded back to where Stormpaw was talking eagerly with his mentor. "And can you teach me how to hunt tomorrow, too?" he was saying.

Mouseleap looked a bit overwhelmed. "Um, sure…if we have time."

Spottedpaw skidded to a stop in front of them. "Sorry, but do you mind if I have a word with Stormpaw?" she interrupted.

"Feel free." Mouseleap looked grateful.

"Fawnpaw's going to show me the apprentices' den. Do you mind if I go with her?" Spottedpaw said in a rush.

Stormpaw shook his gray-and-white head. "Nope. Just save me a place to sleep, will you?"

"Sure!" Spottedpaw looked over her shoulder as she dashed back to where Fawnpaw was waiting patiently and saw him eagerly speaking with Mouseleap again. _Poor Mouseleap, having to put up with Stormpaw's endless questions!_

Fawnpaw was watching them, too. She let out a purr of amusement. "He's curious, isn't he?"

"Yep. I think he annoyed Mother sometimes, asking so many questions."

"I wonder when Mouseleap's going to get to bed?" Fawnpaw teased.

"Probably not until next moon!" Spottedpaw joked.

Fawnpaw watched Stormpaw for another heartbeat, then shot to her paws. "Come on! I'll introduce you to the other apprentices!"

Spottedpaw followed her new friend across the clearing to where the rest of the apprentices were gathered by the stump. She couldn't hide a flicker of nervousness; what if the other apprentices disliked her? _At least I've got Fawnpaw, _she thought.

"This is Crowpaw," Fawnpaw said, flicking her tail at a smoky gray tom. "He's the oldest apprentice."

"Hello," Spottedpaw mewed shyly. "It's nice to meet you." Crowpaw was _very _handsome, no doubt about that.

Crowpaw blinked at her with an expression in his eyes she didn't know, then grunted hello. Spottedpaw was surprised. Every other cat had been friendly to her after the ceremony. _He's not very pleasant…_

Fawnpaw didn't miss the look of shock that flitted across Spottedpaw's face. "Don't mind him," Fawnpaw murmured in her ear. "He's as prickly as a hedgehog, just like his older brother, Jayflight, but he's as loyal as they come." Spottedpaw decided to ignore the gray apprentice and turned her attention back to Fawnpaw.

"This is Cloverpaw," – Fawnpaw continued, flicked her tail at a white-and-ginger she-cat, who blinked in welcome- "and that's Leopardpaw." The last cat was a mottled golden tom. Each mewed friendly greetings and Spottedpaw couldn't help feeling exasperated at Crowpaw. _Why is he so grouchy? _She wished she knew why he had ignored her like that. _At least the others like me, _she thought.

"Want to share?" Cloverpaw asked, pushing a vole towards Spottedpaw with her nose.

"Sure, thanks," Spottedpaw's mouth watered from the warm, tempting smell of fresh-kill, and she gratefully took a bite.

"Delicious," she mumbled. "Thanks, Cloverpaw."

"Oh, no problem. I already had a squirrel. Bluestorm, my mentor, said I deserved a feast after all the prey I brought back from hunting."

Spottedpaw felt a flash of envy. Cloverpaw and Fawnpaw were so confident. _I'll train and train until I'm as good as them, and then maybe Crowpaw won't dislike me so much_.

"Is some of that for me?"

Spottedpaw wheeled around, startled. Her brother was standing just behind her. She swiped at him with a paw. "Mousebrain! You nearly scared me out of my fur!"

"So I did a good job, then?" His blue eyes glinted with wicked amusement. Spottedpaw glared at him for a heartbeat, then let out a resigned sigh. She couldn't stay angry at him for long.

"Finished talking to Mouseleap?" she mewed.

He nodded. "Yup. She's going to show me the territory tomorrow," he added proudly.

"So's Redfoot! Maybe we can go together…"

Crowpaw suddenly heaved himself to his paws. "I'm going to sleep," he growled, avoiding Spottedpaw's eyes.

She watched him stalk into the apprentice's den with a look of frustration. "What's his problem?" she muttered.

Leopardpaw looked up from his mouse. "Dunno. Don't mind him; he'll probably be more pleasant in the morning." His amber eyes blinked up at her reassuringly.

Stormpaw nudged her. "Don't worry about him. He's not worth it. So, can I have some of that vole or not?"


	5. Chapter 3

**_Chapter Three_**

Spottedpaw smoothly settled into the hunter's crouch, placing each paw carefully on the leavesthat covered the ground, creeping forward silently_. _Her paws made no sound on the forest floor. _Careful now, almost there…_Wriggling her haunches before making the final spring, she launched herself after the plump mouse nibbling on a seed at the roots of a giant oak. The mouse scampered out from between her claws, but she darted after it and threw it up into the air with thorn-sharp claws, taking its life with a quick bite to the neck. _Yes! Thank you StarClan! _Tail held jauntily high, she quickly gathered up all the prey she could carry and padded back to camp. Redfoot had given her first solo task that morning: hunt for the Clan.

The warm, musty forest flavors made her mouth water. _Maybe just one mouse…_She quickly pushed the thought away. She was going to stick to the warrior code. _Elders and queens must be fed first_, she reminded herself.

Suddenly, the bracken a few fox-lengths away rustled quietly. Spottedpaw stood stock-still, her ears twitched warily; there was no breeze that could've moved the bracken. The forest was all of a sudden unusually silent. Spottedpaw's head whirled around as she tried to spot the noise-maker, feeling the fur prickle along her spine with a sense of foreboding and evil. Her scent glands were blocked by her fresh-kill and she couldn't smell a thing. She quickly put it down and sniffed the air, but whatever it was had gone. The threatening feeling left as suddenly as it came.

_What in StarClan's name was that?!_

Spottedpaw shuddered and pushed the feeling away, but she couldn't help walking faster. She got a crick in her neck form looking over her shoulder so often. Finally reaching the ravine, she busily padded into the camp, dumped her load onto the fresh-kill pile and heading back out into the forest to collect the rest, on the lookout for whatever it was, but it didn't come back.

* * *

Just past sunhigh, Spottedpaw placed her last piece of prey on the fresh-kill pile with a deep feeling of satisfaction; it had taken her three trips out into the forest to collect all her fresh-kill - even Whitestar had been impressed at the amount of prey she'd brought back! But before she could eat something herself, she had to bring the elders some. Spottedpaw snatched a chaffinch, mouse and a large squirrel from the fresh-kill pile and delivered it to the elder's den, her fur prickling with embarrassment at the elders' praise.

"What a fine squirrel!" Cinderfoot meowed.

Whitewhisker, the oldest cat in ThunderClan (_and the grumpiest_, Spottedpaw thought) prodded his chaffinch with a grey paw. "Well, it might have some meat on its bones," he admitted grudgingly before sinking his teeth into it.

_  
That's elders for you, _she thought as she left, blinking in the sunlight. _Some are nice, but most are grouchy._

She padded back to the pile of prey and surveyed the remains of the fresh-kill. _I haven't tasted vole in a while…_She decisively selected a fat vole from the pile and padded over to the apprentice's den, settling down into a sunlit patch of ferns. The warm sunlight felt good on her fur, and she stretched slowly, enjoying the suppleness of her body and how her muscles flexed smoothly under her fur. It felt good to relax and stretch after a day of serious hunting. She let out a short _mrrow _of amusement to think of how she'd once thought that she'd never be a good as Fawnpaw and the other apprentices. Look at her now!

The memory of her solo task brought back the feeling she felt, like death throwing its cold shadow over the forest, the presence of something evil and dark…

She shook herself. _Thinking like that's only going to give you nightmares,_ she scolded herself. _Although…should I tell Whitestar about it?_

She pushed the thought away. She had no proof something evil was lurking in the forest. She definitely shouldn't try to forget the feeling in case something bad really was out there, but she should wait to mention it.

She shoved the incident to the back of her mind and tucked into her vole until it was nothing but a few scraps of fur and bone. Yawning and stretching the stiffness out of her limbs, Spottedpaw casually glanced up. Her heart sank when she saw Crowflight padding towards her. Ever since being made a warrior half a moon ago, he'd taken to ordering her around like he was Clan leader, and Spottedpaw was starting to get very tired of it.

The gray warrior stopped in front of her. Spottedpaw stared challengingly into his amber eyes, silently daring him to say something. Crowflight studiously ignored the challenge, plain as day, in her eyes. "Did you take some of your prey to the elders, Spottedpaw?" he mewed authoritatively.

Spottedpaw's ears went back and she curled her lip. This cat always managed to ruffle her fur! "I always do," she replied angrily. "And if you don't believe me, you can ask them yourself. Who died and made you leader?"

Crowflight didn't bother to answer as he whipped around, his tail slapping her across the face. Spottedpaw irritably shook herself, biting back an angry retort. Her amber eyes angrily bored into his retreating figure. _If looks could kill, he'd be dead as my vole, _she thought angrily. "Piece of fox dung," she muttered quietly, so Crowflight couldn't hear her.

"Anything the matter?" Leopardpaw padded out of the apprentice's den and to her side. When she didn't answer, he followed her gaze to Crowflight. He narrowed his eyes until they were amber slits. "Need me to claw some fur for you?"

Spottedpaw sighed. "Thanks for the offer, but there's no need to get in trouble for me. He's not worth it."

He gave her a friendly nudge. "Okay, if you're sure..."

He settled down beside her, grooming her fur, his golden pelt brushed Spottedpaw's black and white coat. He blinked warmly at her and flicked her lightly on the ear with his tail tip. Suddenly Spottedpaw felt angry eyes scorching into her fur, and looked over her shoulder.

Crowflight was sitting in the shadows by the camp entrance, his amber eyes glaring at her with anger and something else she couldn't identify - maybe frustration, sadness, or both. When she caught his gaze, he spun around and padded through the gorse tunnel.

Spottedpaw felt a flicker of regret that surprised her. _Why should I be sorry? All he's ever done is be a bossy, annoying, prickly furball!_

She shook herself again to clear her head, turning to share tongues with Leopardpaw.

* * *

Spottedpaw crouched next to Leopardpaw as she hungrily devoured a starling. Redfoot had taken her out on the sunset patrol, and she was starving again. Everything was quiet on the borders, so the patrol only scent-marked and headed back to camp.

Leopardpaw eyed the quickly disappearing remains of her bird, whiskers twitching in amusement. "Wow! You're worse than a starving badger," he chuckled.

Spottedpaw hissed playfully. "I'll show you what a starving badger I am!" She leaped on his shoulders and growled deep in her throat.

Leopardpaw leapt into the air and rolled over, squashing Spottedpaw underneath him. She released her hold on his back and flopped onto the dirt, scrambling to her paws.

"Some badger you make!" Leopardpaw teased.

He reared up, about to pin her to the ground. Spottedpaw crouched, leaped and dove for his hind paws, sweeping them out from under him. Leopardpaw fell hard to the ground, letting out a huff as the wind was knocked out of him. Spottedpaw threw herself on top of him, pinning _him_ to the ground.

"Got you!" she crowed. "How's that for a starving badger?"

"All right, all right! You win!"

Spottedpaw got off him and shook herself to get most of the dust off her fur. Leopardpaw leaped to his paws and touched his nose to her ear. "You have to show me that move sometime."

"Sure," Spottedpaw agreed.

She stared into his glowing amber eyes for a moment, and awkwardly looked away to see Stormpaw bounding towards her.

"Wow! You're back late," she mewed quickly.

"Yeah," he panted. "Mouseleap wouldn't let me go until I perfected this move she was trying to teach me."

"I saved you some fresh-kill," Fawnpaw mewed cheerfully, flicking her tail at two plump mice.

"Great," Stormpaw meowed eagerly. "I'm so hungry I could eat a fox!" He picked them up and padded to Fawnpaw's side.

Spottedpaw watched the way they looked at each other, whiskers quivering in silent amusement– the shy way Fawnpaw glanced at him and the way Stormpaw's eyes glowed when he looked at her. She purred quietly to herself.

Leopardpaw followed her gaze. "They really like each other, don't they?" he murmured.

Spottedpaw glanced at him and was startled to see him watching her with the same glow in his eyes as Stormpaw. She looked away shyly. The golden tom touched her ear with his nose.

_Do I care for him the way he cares for me? _Somehow, she didn't think so.

Suddenly her mind filled with an image of Crowflight, with her bounding at his side, so close that their fur brushed and with him looking at her with those beautiful amber eyes the way Stormpaw looked at Fawnpaw. _What about Crowflight? Do you care about him? _a part of her mind whispered_. _She gave an inward snort of disgust at herself. _That bossy furball? _She sighed. _But he hates me…even if I feel that way about him, which I don't, he obviously doesn't_.

In an awkward attempt to change the subject, she mewed, "Where's Cloverpaw?"

Fawnpaw looked up. "She stepped on a thorn when we were out hunting, so she went to Jayflight's den to have him check it out."

"Ouch," Stormpaw mewed sympathetically. "I bet that hurt."

"Yeah…" Spottedpaw yawned, feeling tired and confused. "You know, I think I'll get to bed early. Redfoot took me out on patrol after hunting the whole morning."

"Alright. See you in the morning," Stormpaw meowed.

Spottedpaw pushed her way through the ferns and into the apprentices' den. She scraped some more moss onto her nest and circled in it before curling up. She sighed. _Why does life have to get so complicated sometimes?_

Just when she started to drift off to sleep, she heard the ferns rustle as someone else pushed their way in. Not bothering to open her eyes, she twitched her ears in acknowledgement. A soft flank pressed itself against hers, and a warm tongue rasped comfortingly over her head. Spottedpaw caught Leopardpaw's scent and purred drowsily as she slipped into slumber.

* * *

Spottedpaw looked around with wide amber eyes. She was sitting in a huge clearing, large enough for many cats, circled by four huge oak trees. She knew this was Fourtrees; Redfoot had pointed it out to her when he had first shown her the territory, although she hadn't yet been chosen to go to a Gathering. The sky seemed close enough that she could reach it in one leap, the stars glowing hotter and brighter than those she saw each night in the forest.

Suddenly she gasped, quivering in awe. A gray cat, its paws wreathed in mist and its blue eyes as bright as the white stars overhead, was perched on the Great Rock, watching her with warmth in its gaze.

"W-Who are you?" she stammered, fear making her voice crack.

The cat jumped down from the silver boulder in one graceful leap. "I am your mother," it meowed warmly. "You won't remember me, because I died moments after you and your brother were born."

Spottedpaw backed away in confusion, ears flattened against her skull. "But my mother was a rogue," she mewed in bewilderment. "You can't be my mother…"

The gray cat padded to her side and nuzzled her flank. "StarClan is for all good cats, not just you warriors. Mine name is Petal."

"You're really my mother?" Spottedpaw whispered. The cat sure looked like she was a part of StarClan, and StarClan didn't lie. Besides, her heart was already trusting what this cat had to say.

Petal stared into her eyes with a gaze the exact color of Stormpaw's. "Yes, dear one."

_My mother! If she's my mother, then what about my…_

Spottedpaw shifted her paws excitedly. "Where's my father? Can I meet him, too?"

Petal purred affectionately. "Here he is," she meowed, pointing with her tail to a muscular gray and white tom padding out of the shadows.

The tom's ears pricked when he saw his daughter and picked up his pace until he was bounding towards her. He pressed his flank to hers and purred so hard Spottedpaw could feel him vibrating. "My name is Cloud," he told her. "I was killed by a fox before you and Stormpaw were born, but I have watched you grow up in your Clans into fine young cats. We are so proud of you."

Spottedpaw rubbed her cheek against his, purring hard. She finally knew her family. _Stormpaw will be so happy when I tell him!_

"We will walk with you step for step," her mother meowed. "We love you. Be the best warrior you can be…our dear Spottedpaw. And remember - trust your instincts."

Spottedpaw remembered the incident in the forest with a rush of fear. "You think I should tell someone?"

"Trust your instincts…"

Spottedpaw gasped; she could see the trees on the other side of the clearing through her mother's body.

"Don't go!" she begged. _I've wanted to see them for so long…They can't leave me now!_

"We will meet with you in dreams for moons to come." Petal's voice, as well as her body, faded until only her blue eyes, and Cloud's amber ones, watched her for a heartbeat longer before disappearing.

"Don't go," she whispered. _No…_

Fourtrees faded into emptiness as well, until Spottedpaw was left in darkness.

"No!"

**Oooh...I wonder what gave Spottedpaw that creepy feeling? (*grins evily*)**


	6. Chapter 4

**_Chapter Four_**

Spottedpaw jerked awake a paw prodded her hard in the side, gasping, her flanks slick with sweat. She blinked blearily up into the golden face of Leopardpaw.

"Are you okay, Spottedpaw?" he anxiously meowed, paw raised to prod her again. "You were thrashing around and mewing in your sleep." Spottedpaw peered over her shoulder and saw Fawnpaw and Stormpaw watching her with wide, concerned eyes.

Still groggy, she stretched the stiffness from her legs and opened her jaws wide in a huge yawn. "No," she meowed, trying to sound unconcerned. "It was just a dream." She quickly washed herself to flatten her ruffled fur. Out of the corner of her eye she watched Stormpaw give himself a quick grooming.

_Should I tell him?_ she wondered. _No, I better not. _She didn't want him to get jealous or angry at her. That was the one thing she couldn't face. Stormpaw and she were very close, since they had no other family left; and she wouldn't give that up for anything.

She remembered what else her mother had said – _follow your instincts. _Did that mean to tell someone? She twitched her ears thoughtfully. _I'll tell Whitestar after training, _she decided, and padded out of the den.

* * *

"Okay," Redfoot meowed, crouching low to the ground, bushy ginger tail tip twitching. "I'm going to come at you, and you try to avoid me."

Spottedpaw nodded quickly, mirroring his crouch and baring her teeth. With a yowl, Redfoot pushed off the ground and bounded towards her. Thinking fast, Spottedpaw tucked her head and rolled out of the way of Redfoot's charge, leaping to her paws. She was vaguely aware of Mouseleap's narrowed eyes burning into her back and Stormpaw's yowls of encouragement as they stopped to watch; flooded by the sense of icy calm she always felt when she practiced fighting, she instinctively raised a paw over her head. She automatically calculated Redfoot's speed and direction. _He won't be able to slow down, turn or stop fast enough to avoid it... _Timing the move perfectly, she clocked Redfoot hard on his head as he skidded past. Spinning around and following it up with a swift kick in the side with her hind legs as he stumbled, her mentor was thrown off balance, tumbling head over paws to the other side of the sandy hollow. Redfoot howled and stumbled to his feet, shaking his head to clear it. Spottedpaw's battle-calm drained away, replaced by worry as she uncertainly took a step forward. _Did I hurt him?_ Redfoot, his head hunched over between his forelegs, flicked his tail at her as a signal that the play-fight was over. Spottedpaw swiftly trotted to his side, anxiously sniffing his side for injuries.

"I didn't hit you that hard, did I?" she mewed worriedly, sighing in relief when Redfoot raised his head.

Redfoot let out an unsteady purr, shaking himself again. "You have a lot of force behind that paw. You hit me hard enough for me to wonder which way was up. And when you followed it up with that back kick…" he shook his head in amazement. "Although," he added, whiskers twitching in silent amusement, "I seem to recall saying _avoid _me, not retaliate."

Startled and pleased, Spottedpaw felt a flicker of pride at her mentor's praise, but mainly she just felt embarrassed. _I forgot that he'd said not to strike back…_"Sorry," she mewed apologetically.

Redfoot gave her a friendly nudge. "It's fine! Just next time, maybe listen closer."

Spottedpaw hung her head. "Okay."

Mouseleap joined the two cats, Stormpaw at her heels. "Hey Spottedpaw, could you try that move on me?" The dusky brown warrior's tone was curious and interested.

"Sure," Spottedpaw agreed, still a bit embarrassed. "If you want to."

The two cats took up their positions, facing each other.

"Do you mind if I try something a little different?" Mouseleap asked.

"Not at all."

This time Spottedpaw got no warning when Mouseleap pounced, but she was ready, every muscle tense in anticipation. Her mind was clear and focused. Mouseleap was prepared for when Spottedpaw darted out of the way of her charge and followed, leaping for the apprentice's shoulders. Without thinking, Spottedpaw whirled and flipped onto her back. Exposing her soft underbelly was a risk, but Spottedpaw instinctively knew that Mouseleap wouldn't get a chance to strike at it, not if she timed it right. She shoved both hind legs straight into Mouseleap's belly as the brown warrior sailed overhead. The warrior was propelled by Spottedpaw's kick all the way to the other side of the clearing, tumbling into a patch of ferns. The whole battle was over in a heartbeat.

Spottedpaw bounded over to the ferns, mentally scolding herself for kicking so hard. "Mouseleap! Are you okay?"

The dusky brown warrior scrambled to her feet and shook herself. "I'm fine," she wheezed. "By StarClan, you've got a powerful kick! You fight like the whole of TigerClan!"

"Sorry," Spottedpaw meowed for the second time that day.

She helped Mouseleap out of the ferns, glancing up to see her mentor, whiskers quivering in pride and amusement, padding over to them, Stormpaw at his heels.

"I think you've mastered that move. Now, let's move on to-"

Reedtail, a pale tabby tom, trotted into the sandy hollow, long, thin tail held jauntily high. "Whitestar wants you to end training early," he meowed, swelling with pride at carrying Whitestar's message. Spottedpaw had to hold back a snicker. _He looks silly, with his chest all puffed out like that…_

Redfoot blinked in surprise at the message, while Mouseleap's whiskers twitched in curiosity. "Why?" Redfoot asked.

"He wants you – all of you - to go to the Gathering tonight."

Stormpaw leaped straight up into the air. "Yippee!"

Spottedpaw's whiskers quivered in silent amusement at her brother's antics. Determined to show she was mature enough to go, she tried to contain herself better, even though she wanted to leap into the air for joy, too. Only her twitching tail and gleaming eyes betrayed her excitement. _My first Gathering! Whitestar must be impressed with our training, _she thought proudly.

Mouseleap eyed Stormpaw in amusement. "Someone's happy," she observed. Stormpaw, unable to keep still, chased his tail in circles.

"Speaker of the obvious," Redfoot muttered in Spottedpaw's ear. She stifled a _mrrow _of laughter.

"Whitestar says to grab some fresh-kill and take a nap, so you won't be tired," Reedtail continued.

"Great," Redfoot meowed. "Let's head back to camp, you two. I could do with a fat mouse right now."

**Yay! Spottedpaw's first Gathering!!! It's going to be an interesting one, too....**


	7. Chapter 5

**_Chapter Five_**

Spottedpaw yawned and poked her head out of the apprentice's den, blinking at the fading sunlight. She quivered with excitement. Her first Gathering!

Whitestar leaped to the Highrock and yowled out the names of those chosen to go. Spottedpaw felt a thrill of pride and anticipation when Whitestar called her name, although she was disappointed that Crowflight wasn't going.. Spottedpaw disappeared back into the den and tried to prod Stormpaw awake, while the other selected cats quickly meowed good-byes to those who were staying behind, promising to tell them the news when they returned, then milled in impatient anticipation by the gorse tunnel for Whitestar to finish leaving instructions for Flameclaw, the senior warrior in charge of the camp while the others were at the Gathering.

She withdrew her head, the ferns rustling quietly. "Come on! They're about to leave!" she whispered as loudly as she dared when she spotted Stormpaw's snoring gray-and white figure, trying not to wake up the other apprentices. She and Stormpaw were the only apprentices going this time.

Stormpaw just flipped over onto his back, mumbled something that included voles, smacked his lips and continued sleeping.

Spottedpaw hissed impatiently, padding to stand right over him. "Food," she suggested, a bit louder. "Mice!"

Stormpaw woke up so quickly Spottedpaw was surprised he didn't strain a muscle. "Where? Where?" he meowed wildly. Then he saw Spottedpaw.

"Oh." He yawned. "It's just you." Then his blue eyes narrowed. "Don't you ever do that again!" he meowed, pretending to be mad. "Unless, of course, there is food," he added lightly.

_My brother, the most hilarious cat in the forest..._ Spottedpaw tried to nudge him to his feet, ignoring his attempt at humor. "Come _on_! Do you want to be left behind on our first Gathering?"

Stormpaw shot up and out of the den. "Well, why didn't you say so?" he called back over his shoulder.

Spottedpaw stared after him, amber eyes stretched wide in astonishment, then blinked and shrugged to herself. "Toms," she muttered as she followed him (more slowly) out.

She joined the patrol of cats going to the Gathering and waited impatiently for Whitestar. She coped with the wait better than Stormpaw, who was anxiously pacing back and forth in front of the gorse tunnel.

Finally Whitestar was done speaking to Icestorm and padded to the head of the crowd as cats quickly cleared a path for him. He looked around at the cats standing in front of him, his green eyes resting for a heartbeat on each of them. Spottedpaw lifted her chin and met his gaze solidly when she felt his eyes pass over her, and saw him nod a tiny bit in approval. His whiskers twitched in amusement when he looked at Stormpaw, then with a commanding yowl and a flick of his tail turned and bounded into the forest. Spottedpaw surged after him, loving the feel of the wind tugging at her fur and her tail streaming out behind her. All around her, cats were whispering to each other in excitement, speculating what the other leaders would address while swerving around clumps of bracken, ferns, and trees.

Spottedpaw glanced up at the sky and gasped; a thin wisp of cloud was floating towards the moon. She stumbled and Stormpaw almost ran right over her. Her fur bristled with horror. Was StarClan angry? A Gathering couldn't be held if the moon was covered.

She blinked and the cloud was gone; the sky was completely empty. Spottedpaw glanced at her Clanmates. None of them acted like they had seen anything.

She muttered an excuse of a loose stone to Stormpaw, who was asking why she'd tripped, and looked up at the sky one more time.

No cloud.

She shuddered and dashed forward again with Stormpaw at her heels, running hard to catch up. Suddenly she had a thought that turned her cold, despite the warm night air of green-leaf.

_First I dream of StarClan and know this - a sign no one else can see!_

_What if I'm not meant to be a warrior? What if I'm supposed to be a medicine cat?_


	8. Chapter 6

**Thanks a ton for the review, HalfBrachenDemon =)!!! Anyway, it's Spottedpaw's first Gathering! Yay! It's going to be an interesting one, too...**

**_Chapter Six_**

Spottedpaw crept to Redfoot's side, peering over his shoulder down the slope and into the hollow below and caught her breath. More cats than she thought even _lived_ in the forest were crowded into Fourtrees. Tabbies and tortoiseshells mingled with black cats and ginger cats, the smells of the four Clans already there mixing to make a whole new scent. She looked down at the Great Rock, hoping to catch a sight of the other Clan leaders.

Sablestar, the ShadowClan leader, was talking impatiently to Ivystar of RiverClan and Bramblestar of SkyClan. Cloudstar, WindClan's leader, sat a little ways apart from the other leaders and stared into the hollow, his black tail flicking from side to side.

Tearing her eyes away from the cats in the clearing, she waited for Whitestar's signal. He waited a heartbeat longer, then twitched his tail from side to side and plunged down the slop and into Fourtrees, his Clan streaming out behind him.

Stormpaw wove through the running cats until he reached Spottedpaw's side. "This is going to be a _great _Gathering!" he panted, blue eyes wide with anticipation.

"You haven't even been here for two minutes!" Spottedpaw accused.

He shrugged. "It's still going to be awesome!"

The ThunderClan cats rushed out of the undergrowth and into Fourtrees. Spottedpaw wished she had another pair of eyes to see everything that there was to see.

Redfoot padded up to them. "Remember what Whitestar said?"

Spottedpaw and Stormpaw nodded quickly.

"Good. Now remember, the point is to get to know your enemies, without spilling the Clan's secrets. If any cat makes you angry, or insults you or the Clan, or something, _don't fight them_. There's a truce for the Gathering."

"Is that it?" Stormpaw grumbled.

Redfoot let out a _mrrow_ of laughter. "Go on, you two! Go meet some of the other apprentices!" He chased them away with a playful growl.

"So," Stormpaw meowed eagerly. "Where do you want to go?"

"Redfoot said to meet other apprentices first," Spottedpaw reminded him. "So let's go find some."

They padded through the maze of cats, weaving in and out between throngs of cats chatting to one another. Suddenly Stormpaw gasped.

"See him?" he hissed, twitching his ears towards a dark gray tom with long scar across his face. "That's Shadefur_!_ And there's_ Badgerfang_!" He sighed happily as a huge white tom with a broad black stripe across his back strode by. "They're, like, two of the greatest warriors in the Clans!"

Spottedpaw looked at the tom's thick muscles rippling under his white pelt and shuddered. _That's not a cat I'd want to face in battle. _She shook herself and nudged Stormpaw. They'd better hurry if they wanted to meet other apprentices before the meeting started."Focus, Stormpaw."

"Uh, right." Stormpaw glanced around, then flicked Spottedpaw on the shoulder with his tail tip. "There's some apprentices!"

She followed him over to a group of five other young cats – two SkyClan apprentices, a pale tabby tom and a cream she-cat, one black ShadowClan tom, one WindClan brown tabby she-cat, and one RiverClan tom with a gray tabby pelt.

The ShadowClan cat saw them first. "Hello! Who're you guys?"

Spottedpaw answered for them. "I'm Spottedpaw, and this is my brother, Stormpaw."

The apprentices made room for them to join the circle, while the ShadowClan cat introduced himself. "My name is Blackpaw." He blinked warmly at Spottedpaw. Spottedpaw nodded politely.

"I'm Ripplepaw," muttered the RiverClan tom when Blackpaw nudged him, his dark tabby stripes like ripples on the river_. _Spottedpaw blinked. Was it her imagination, or was Ripplepaw glaring at her and Stormpaw? The fur along her spine shivered and she looked away.

The WindClan she-cat flicked Spottedpaw with her tail tip. "I'm Heatherpaw, and those two are Berrypaw and Rosepaw." She nodded to the two SkyClan cats.

"I think that Blackpaw cat likes you," Stormpaw muttered teasingly in her ear.

Spottedpaw felt her fur burn with embarrassment. "Shut up, mousebrain," she whispered back and turned to the other cats. "Did we interrupt anything?"

"Nothing much," Blackpaw quickly answered. "Berrypaw was talking about a fox he helped chase off SkyClan territory."

"Really? A fox?" Stormpaw mewed, eyes wide.

Berrypaw shyly shuffled his paws in the dirt. "It was nothing, really," he murmured. "It wasn't very old yet; it a just a cub."

"Still, though, a _fox_!"

Berrypaw opened his mouth to reply, but a yowl from the Great Rock interrupted him.

"The Gathering's starting!" Heatherpaw hissed.

Spottedpaw turned and looked up at the Great Rock. Cloudstar, the WindClan leader, padded out of the shadows and stood at the edge of the boulder. His white paws gripped with edge of the Great Rock with long, curved claws. "I will speak first," he meowed. Spottedpaw blinked. His voice was high for a tom.

"WindClan has fared well this last moon. We have two new warriors, Nightstripe and Sparrowflight." Spottedpaw followed his amber gaze to two young warriors sitting together near the base of the Great Rock, looking around proudly. "That is all." He padded back into the shadows to sit next to Sablestar.

Bramblestar of SkyClan stepped forward, his amber gaze sweeping over the assembled cats before beginning. "SkyClan has nothing to report."

Sablestar nodded politely at him as he took his place before striding to the edge of the Great Rock. "ShadowClan is sad to report that our deputy of countless moons, Toadfoot, has died. Oakfall has taken his place."

Sad murmurs rustled among the gathered cats like the night wind in the trees.

Spottedpaw glanced over at Blackpaw. The black apprentice sat with his head bowed. She flicked him with her tail tip. "I'm sorry," she whispered. He met her gaze.

"He was my mentor," he mewed sadly.

"Oh…That must've been tough," she mewed softly.

"I'll be okay…Sablestar gave me my new mentor yesterday so I wouldn't get behind on my training."

A single yowl rose over the muttering cats. "How did he die?"

Spottedpaw whipped her head around and looked for the cat who had called out. A large ginger tom fearlessly met Sablestar's burning amber stare with his own.

Sablestar stared at him for a moment, eyes narrowed into slits, then bowed her head. "He was climbing a tree after a squirrel, but the branch broke under his weight and he fell." She stood like that for a heartbeat, then shook herself. "On a happier note, Breezetail has just given us a fine litter of healthy kits."

Whitestar padded to Sablestar's side. "All the Clans mourn for your loss, Sablestar," he meowed. "And we are glad to hear that such a capable warrior has taken Toadfoot's place."

Spottedpaw looked to the base of the Great Rock where the deputies sat and saw a small brown tabby tom swell with pride.

Sablestar nodded gratefully to the ThunderClan and stepped back. Whitestar perched on the very edge of the Great Rock and surveyed the watching cats. "ThunderClan would like to say that the training of our apprentices is going along well, and Leopardpaw and Cloverpaw will be made warriors soon."

"The prey has been running well, and we expect to be fat as mice when leaf-bare comes. "

A few amused purrs rippled through the cats.

"That is all," he concluded.

Ivystar, the RiverClan leader, didn't wait for him to step back. She brushed past him and perched on the edge of the Great Rock, muscles tense like she was about to leap into battle. Spottedpaw felt a prickle of uneasiness as the she-cat's fierce green eyes swept over the gathered cats. _Something's not right, _she thought, and unsheathed her claws, just in case. Something told her there was going to be trouble.

Ivystar waited for a heartbeat to let the suspense build before she spoke. "There has been a shocking crime committed in the forest." She paused. "A RiverClan warrior has been murdered! And not just a warrior, but a nursing queen, with kits, found dead with ThunderClan scent on her fur!"

The cats gasped and yowled over one another. Spottedpaw and Stormpaw jumped to their paws and protested loudly with the rest of their Clan. Ripplepaw screeched and leaped onto Spottedpaw's back, his claws digging into her fur and piercing her skin, bright red drops of blood staining her pelt. The SkyClan apprentices with Blackpaw and Stormpaw pulled him off and pinned him to the ground. Spottedpaw's insides twisted in a mix of shock, fear, and anger. "Stop!" she screeched. "StarClan won't be happy-"

"What do you know of StarClan?" snarled Ripplepaw, writhing and twisting under the apprentices' claws. "You and the rest of your mangy, crow-food eating Clan murdered my mother!"

Stormpaw's eyes burned. "ThunderClan never touched one of your cats!" he growled, digging his claws deeper into Ripple paw's fur. The apprentice let out a yowl of pain.

Spottedpaw yelled again and dragged her brother off him. "What are you doing?!" she screamed. "The truce-"

Stormpaw glared disbelievingly at her. "He just accused us of murder!" he spat.

Spottedpaw met his gaze squarely. "Let Whitestar sort it out!" she commanded and released her hold on his fur.

The white tom was shaking with outrage, but his voice was steady and cold as ice. "My warriors did nothing of the sort!" he meowed angrily.

Ivystar stepped closer, so that she and Whitestar were almost nose to nose. "Then explain your scent on her fur!" she spat.

Whitestar didn't move. "_I said_, my warriors never touched your warrior. If you refuse to accept my word of honor that we did not murder your cat, then this Gathering is over!" He turned his back on her and bunched his muscles to jump to the ground.

With a screech of pure fury Ivystar leaped onto his back, propelling them off the Great Rock and into the crowd.

RiverClan warriors turned and leaped on the ThunderClaners, and in heartbeats the Gathering was a mass of screeching, fighting cats, heaving and roiling like the river in full flood. Spottedpaw leaped out of the way of a thrashing ball of claws and teeth as a ThunderClan warrior and RiverClan warrior fought to get hold of each other, and wildly scanned the crowd for Redfoot. She saw him get bowled over by a tortoiseshell she-cat and bounded over to pull the tortoiseshell off him. Cloudstar, Sablestar and Bramblestar leaped into the fray, ripping Ivystar off Whitestar.

"Remember the truce!" Sablestar yowled ferociously while the other two leaders called to their Clans to hold their ground. Whitestar, a bloody clump of fur dangling off his shoulder, called to his warriors to stop fighting. Battle screeched turned to terrified yowls as a dark wisp of cloud drifted over the moon, throwing the Gathering into shadow. Spottedpaw trembled with terror. _That cloud over the moon that nobody else saw...Was that a sign of this?_

"StarClan is displeased!" Bramblestar announced, and turned to address Whitestar. "Are you sure none of your warriors killed Ivystar's warrior?"

"You should conduct an investigation, just in case," Cloudstar added.

Whitestar bristled at Cloudstar's assumption that he was lying, but forced his fur to lie flat. "That is sound advice," he admitted grudgingly.

"And Ivystar, are you sure you were not mistaken in any way?" Bramblestar pressed.

She bared her teeth. "You doubt the word of my warriors?" she hissed.

Unruffled, Bramblestar evenly met her burning stare. "No, but it is possible that your warriors could have been wrong," he meowed.

Ivystar opened her mouth to spit a reply, but Cloudstar broke in. "You would be wise to look into this more before making accusations," he cautioned.

Ivystar stared at him for a moment, then jerked her head in a nod. Waving her tail to gather her warriors, she padded to the edge of the clearing as the Clans silently cleared a path for them. She paused before she disappeared into the undergrowth, her eyes sweeping over the crowd. "This isn't over," she announced. "We will avenge Briarthorn's death...one way or another."

Whitestar courteously dipped his head to Ivystar. The leader narrowed her eyes, but didn't say any more as she and her Clan vanished into the shadows.

With a sweep of his tail, Whitestar gathered his warriors. Spottedpaw, her ears pricked with curiosity, saw Sablestar pad up to him and tell him something. Whitestar listened, then dipped his head in farewell and led the way out of Fourtrees. As her Clan padded over the slope to the camp, Spottedpaw paused and looked over the shoulder, along scratch on her shoulder stinging painfully. She thought she caught a last glimpse of burning green eyes glowing from the top of the rise on the other side of Fourtrees, watching ThunderClan return to camp. Ivystar's last words echoed in Spottedpaw's mind, and she shuddered as a cold touch of unease brushed over her heart.

_This isn't over…We will avenge Briarthorn's death…one way or another._

She thought of Ivystar attacking her leader and the cold chill was chased away by a hot flush of anger, which in turn hardened into determination. Spottedpaw straightened up and lifted her chin. _If it's war you want, Ivystar, _she thought, _then you'll have to go through me. I won't let my Clan be destroyed to avenge a murder we didn't commit. _

With tail held high she turned and followed her Clan home.


	9. Chapter 7

**Thanks millions for the fave, Aceaxel1234!!! Now on with the story...**

**_Chapter Seven_**

Spottedpaw filed into camp with the rest of the warriors trembling with exhaustion, strangely tired, her shoulder scratch throbbing. The cats still awake padded into the clearing in the center of the camp to hear the news, while Whitestar whisked into his den with several of the senior warriors.

"I'm going to go find Fawnpaw!" Stormpaw mewed and whisked off to the apprentices' den. Spottedpaw watched him go and yawned, stretching slowly.

She saw Crowflight pad out of the warriors' den, roused by the mews of the returning cats and the questions of those who'd stayed in camp, and caught her breath, admiring the play of the moonlight on his fur. The gray warrior quickly glanced around, then to Spottedpaw's surprise walked over to her. His fur bristled.

"What in the name of StarClan happened to you?" he demanded. He gestured with is tail to the long red scratch on her shoulder. It twinged and Spottedpaw twisted her head around to give it a few licks.

"Ivystar claimed we murdered one of her warriors, a queen named Briarthorn. She tried to attack Whitestar, and her Clan followed her lead."

"Is she crazy?" he growled.

Spottedpaw twitched her ears. "What was she supposed to think? A warrior found dead with ThunderClan scent on her, just over their side of the border?"

"Ivystar's a mousebrain if she thought she could settle it by starting a fight at a Gathering!" he meowed fiercely, sheathing and unsheathing his claws like he wanted to sink them into the RiverClan leader's fur. "Cats could've been killed!"

Spottedpaw blinked. "Oh, I don't think it would've come to that," she mewed reassuringly. "The other leaders stepped in to break it up. They wouldn't have let it go that far."

He whirled around and stalked away, his fur still standing in end. Spottedpaw watched him go, confused.

Suddenly a golden brown shape hurtled out of the apprentices' den. "How was it?" Leopardpaw asked, twining his tail around hers. "What happened?"

Spottedpaw purred in welcome, glad for the distraction, and repeated the story she'd told Crowflight.

Leopardpaw gave a snort of disgust at Ivystar, anxiously inspecting her cut. Spottedpaw yawned widely, closing her eyes and stretching and longing to curl up in her warm nest, but she had a feeling she'd forgotten something. Suddenly she remembered. "Oh, I almost forgot! Whitestar said he's going to make you a warrior soon."

Leopardpaw gasped. "Really?"

At Spottedpaw's nod, he purred. "Finally!"

"I know you're looking forward to it," Spottedpaw meowed.

Leopardpaw stared into her eyes for a heartbeat. "I'm glad you're safe," he meowed softly. Suddenly he blinked.

"Oh! I bet you're hungry! I'll go fetch you…what would you like?"

She purred. "Just a mouse would be great."

"Anything for you," Leopardpaw mewed, brushing her flank with his tail before bounding off to the fresh-kill pile.

Spottedpaw watched him go, all traces of happiness gone. "But it's not you I love," she whispered in dismay. "It's not you…" She blinked in shock when she realized what she'd just admitted to herself. She'd buried the thought every time it came up for so long that she never considered it might be true.

"Then who is it?"

Spottedpaw, taken completely by surprise, jumped and whirled around. "Stormpaw! I thought I told you to stop that!" she gasped.

Her brother licked her shoulder in apology. "Sorry. I was talking to Fawnpaw when I realized I was hungry, so I went out to get a few mice and I heard you talking to yourself."

Spottedpaw sighed. "It's not your fault. I wasn't paying attention."

Stormpaw nudged her. "Well, then who is it?"

Spottedpaw almost snapped at him to leave her alone, but she decided against it when she saw only concern in his eyes. _He's just worried for me… but if I don't love Leopardpaw, then who…?_ She searched her feelings, almost afraid of the answer, and when it came, she bowed her head in dismay.

"Crowflight," she whispered, a picture of him filling her mind, his gray fur glowing in the sunlight, his eyes shining to see her…

"Who? I didn't hear you."

"Crowflight."

Stormpaw's eyes widened. "But I thought you hated him."

"No," she muttered bitterly. "It's the other way around. And besides-" -her throat felt like there was a stone lodged in it- "Cloverpaw's been padding after him for moons now, so I guess he'll choose her."

"Oh, sister," he whispered sympathetically and pressed his side against hers.

Spottedpaw wanted to bury her muzzle in his fur. "What am I supposed to do?" she wailed. "What can I say to Leopardpaw?"

Stormpaw licked her head comfortingly. "It'll work out okay," he whispered reassuringly. "I'll do whatever I can to help." Spottedpaw leaned against him for a moment, grateful for his support. "Thanks, Stormpaw," she whispered.

Leopardpaw reached them with a mouse dangling from his jaws just as Whitestar leaped onto the Highrock and yowled the summons.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath the Highrock for a Clan meeting!"

Grateful to not have to talk to talk to Leopardpaw just yet, Spottedpaw turned to face Whitestar with the rest of the Clan. Most of what he said was no news to the cats that'd gone to the Gathering.

"I want a dawn and a sunset patrol going by our border with RiverClan every day!" Whitestar called. "And two cats standing guard every night. We can't take the chance of RiverClan attacking our camp. But if they do, Sablestar has promised ThunderClan her support." Spottedpaw's ears twitched; _that must've been what the ShadowClan leader was telling him_, she thought. Whitestar leaped down from the Highrock and padded over to Icestorm as the cats stared to leave to their nests. Jayflight wove in between the cats who'd gotten hurt during the fight, ordering them to his den for treatment. He caught sight of Spottedpaw "You too," he ordered, and marched to the ferns that marked the entrance to where the clearing where he had his den.

"But it's not that deep," Spottedpaw protested half-heartedly as the medicine cat led her away.

She blinked until her eyes adjusted to the lack of light in the shadowy crevice where Jayflight stored his herbs. He grumbled under his breath as he looked her over. "You're one of the worst. It's not that bad, but it will be if it gets infected," he meowed, and prescribed a poultice, carefully applying it before he let her go.

Leopardpaw was waiting outside Jayflight's den. Spottedpaw took Leopardpaw's mouse with a soft "thanks" and padded quickly to the apprentice's den, remembering her conversation with Stormpaw. She quickly scrapped some moss together and curled up in between Fawnpaw and her brother, taking a few half-hearted bites from the mouse before pushing it away from her with a sigh. _I'm too tired to eat…_

She heard Leopardpaw enter the den. He made a sad, hurt sound and Spottedpaw felt his eyes scorch her fur for a heartbeat. Then he slowly padded to his nest and curled up, alone, Spottedpaw's nest beside him growing cold.

It was a while before Spottedpaw fell asleep, even though she was exhausted. The excitement of the Gathering and what had happened had pushed away the question, but it came back to haunt her now.

_Why does StarClan choose to visit me? Am I not supposed to be a warrior? _Being a warrior _had_ to be what she was supposed to be. She loved hunting for her Clan and battle training with Redfoot. How could she give that up? But then again, she'd never heard of a warrior visiting StarClan in dreams.

She closed her eyes and prayed that StarClan would send her the answers.


	10. Chapter 8

**_Chapter Eight_**

Spottedpaw opened her eyes and saw her mother standing over her, cold starlight shimmering in her fur, and leaped to her feet. She was in Fourtrees again, the moon shedding its silver light over everything.

"Why are you-"

Petal slapped her tail over her mouth. "Peace, dear one," she meowed gently. "StarClan knows your doubts. We send you these dreams and the sign of the cloud to give you guidance and to warn you of things to come." She pulled her tail away.

Spottedpaw felt a rush of relief that made her weak at the knees. "Good," she meowed happily. "I thought StarClan wanted me to be a medicine cat."

Petal purred. "You are on the path that StarClan wants you to follow."

Spottedpaw's ear pricked. "Wait… what you said earlier, what do you mean, warn me of things to come? Is trouble coming? Has there been a prophecy?"

Petal stared at her, her blue eyes shadows with sorrow. "I can't tell you that."

"Please," Spottedpaw begged. "At least tell me if there's going to be trouble!"

Petal sighed. "There is a great darkness coming; already its shadow has fallen over the Clans."

_I've got to get back and warn my Clan! _"How can I stop it?" Spottedpaw asked, fur bristling with horror.

As if Petal knew what Spottedpaw was thinking, she mewed, "Your Clan leader already knows. Do not mention this to the rest of your Clanmates; it will strike fear into their hearts when they need to stand strong." Petal started to fade; Spottedpaw could see the Great Rock through her mother's body.

Spottedpaw gasped. "Wait! You haven't told me how to stop it yet!"

"You'll know when the time comes…" Petal's blue eyes stared at her daughter for a heartbeat more, then disappeared as well.

Spottedpaw's dream changed. She was running and running, something dark and evil always behind her.

**StarClan and their prophecies...**


	11. Chapter 9

**Thanks for the reminder, Iced Skim Decaf Mocha Latte! I'll try to update more often. **

**_C_****_hapter Seven_**

"Spottedpaw! Spottedpaw, wake up!"

Spottedpaw staggered to her feet and looked around wildly, panting slightly, her ears pressed flat back against her head and fur bristling. Redfoot, the cat calling her, was staring at her curiously, his head poking through the apprentices' den. Leopardpaw was watching her anxiously, with Stormpaw and Fawnpaw still asleep. Cloverpaw was already gone, the scent on her nest starting to grow stale.

_I've got to tell Whitestar! _She thought wildly. _Something awful's going to happen! But, if he already knows…do I tell him or what?_ _Well…I guess if he already knows, it's okay, _she thought uncertainly. _He is the Clan leader after all. He'll know what to do about it. _She shoved her dream away and focused on acting like nothing was wrong.

"You all right?" Redfoot asked. Spottedpaw remembered what her mother said about not telling anyone else and gave a shaky nod. "Icestorm wants us to go out on a patrol. Check out the RiverClan border," Redfoot explained. "See you in a bit." He withdrew his head and left.

Spottedpaw gave herself a quick wash and, mewing a quick good-bye to Leopardpaw, rushed out to join the others. Redfoot, Bluestorm, and Raventail waited impatiently in front of the gorse tunnel, tails twitching and eyes narrowed, Raventail pacing back and forth.

Spottedpaw skidded up, her fur hot with embarrassment. "Sorry for being late-"

Redfoot grinned, slapping his tail over her mouth. "Don't worry. It's Sandfur we're waiting on. Whitestar's talking to him." He pulled his tail away. Spottedpaw sighed with relief and sat down.

Rosethorn, a young ginger warrior, walked past them and gave the patrol a nod of greeting, then paused and looked back at Spottedpaw, whiskers twitching in amusement. She padded up to Spottedpaw, delicately reaching up to pull a piece of moss off her ear. "There you go," she meowed. She winked. "Slept in, huh?" Spottedpaw smiled back - the ginger warrior was always cheerful and friendly.

"Hunting?" Redfoot asked.

Rosethorn nodded. "Yeah. The fresh-kill pile was looking low. Speaking of which, I'd better get going before Icestorm bites my head off for wasting daylight," she added, whiskers twitching in silent laughter. Spottedpaw purred in amusement with the rest of the patrol; Icestorm could be stern, but he was nice, not the biting-off-head- type. Waving her tail in good-bye to the other cats, Rosethorn turned and padded out the gorse tunnel. "Have a good patrol!" she called over her shoulder.

When Sandfur finally joined them, the patrol headed out at a run for the RiverClan border. Just as the patrol came into sight of Sunningrocks, the smooth gray boulders gleaming in the sunlight, Spottedpaw staggered, Redfoot, the rest of the patrol and Sunningrocks vanishing. She was hunting in another part of the forest, her ears pricking as she spotted a squirrel searching for nuts at the foot of an oak tree just a few fox-lengths away. She bunched her muscles and prepared to spring, but suddenly the squirrel sat up, nose twitching, and leaped away into the undergrowth with a squeak of alarm. She slowly stood in confusion, a prickle of unease shivering down her spine. The squirrel couldn't have heard her or smelled her, so what had it sensed?

Suddenly a heavy weight crashed down on her back; before she could so much as meow in shock, a biting pain met in her neck, and everything faded into darkness, the reek of freshly spilled blood in her nostrils.

Spottedpaw's eyes flew open and she gasped, panting for breath, the cold ground pressing against her cheek. Redfoot was crouching over her. "Are you okay?" he mewed worriedly. "You just kind of keeled over."

She staggered to her feet, not bothering to shake off the dead leaves stuck to her fur. "Something awful's happened!" she gasped.

Redfoot blinked. "I think you hit your head. I'll take you back to camp and you can see Jayflight-"

Spottedpaw lurched away, her heartbeat quickening with terror, with no thought in her mind but to stop whatever was happening from happening. "The camp!"

Behind her, she heard Redfoot yowling her name, but she didn't look back. Her mother's words echoed in her brain. _There is a great darkness coming; already its shadow has fallen over the Clans…a great darkness...a great darkness…I was a mouse-brained idiot not to tell Whitestar! _

Over the sounds of her own flight she heard someone chasing after her, probably Redfoot. She sped up, worried that if he caught her he would stop her from reaching the camp. _And what will you do when you get there? _She scathingly thought to herself. _You don't have a plan! _She racked her brain, trying to think of something before she reached camp. Bracken and ferns whipped at her face and several times she almost crashed into trees; the closer she got to the ravine she heard shocked and angry yowls tearing through the air, coming from the camp. She skidded down the slope of the ravine and barreled into the camp, sides heaving.

Immediately her eyes were drawn to limp, untidy heap of ginger fur slumped in the middle of the clearing, perfectly still. She stood, numb, her Clanmates' sorrowful cries battering at her ears. _No!_

It was Rosethorn.


	12. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

_No! How can she be dead? She was fine just a few minutes ago! _Spottedpaw stared at the dead ginger warrior in shock and horror. _I did this! I could've warned Whitestar! I could've stopped her dying!_

Spottedpaw jerked out of her thoughts and let out a startled hiss as something barreled into her from behind. She whirled around with unsheathed claws and wild eyes.

Redfoot got to his feet and shook the dust from his fur. "Sorry," he huffed. "But when you ran away like that, I had to follow you." He narrowed his eyes. "Now what in the name of StarClan where you saying? What awful thing's happened?"

Spottedpaw sheathed her claws and silently stepped aside, revealing the scene in the camp. Redfoot's eyes got big and his whiskers drooped. "No," he breathed, his eyes shadowing with grief. "What in StarClan's name happened?"

Spottedpaw shook her head. "I don't know," she whispered sadly. Then her vision came back to her, the heavy weight and the biting pain... As sure as if StarClan had whispered it in her ear, she realized that what she'd seen was what Rosethorn had seen, just before she died. Her paws trembled. _It wasn't a fox, or a badger; they can't climb trees, and they aren't smart enough to wait and ambush somebody like that. It had to be a cat! _She vainly searched her memory to find if Rosethorn had detected a scent before whoever it was killed her. Nothing. Focused on the hunt as she was, Rosethorn hadn't been able to smell anything, and she had died too quickly to identify a scent when the murderer crashed down on top of her. She shuddered, remembering the pain of the killing bite._ Oh, Rosethorn, I'm so sorry! I promise that I'll find out who killed you._

"Where's Sandfur and the rest of the patrol?" she asked, feeling a cold prick of terror. Rosethorn's killer was still out there; the forest wasn't safe anymore.

"They stayed behind to check the border," Redfoot meowed absently. Spottedpaw thought about where Rosethorn had been hunting before she died. She recognized the area; it was a little glade near Snakerocks, about as far from the RiverClan border as you could get. She felt a thrill of relief that made her legs tremble. The patrol would be safe…at least until the murderer found them. But if there was only the one cat, like in her vision, then surely he – or she - wouldn't attack the whole patrol? And what about RiverClan? They had a reason to want to kill one of ThunderClan's warriors; maybe it was one of them. But they couldn't get so far into ThunderClan territory without getting caught, so it couldn't be them. ShadowClan had pledged support to ThunderClan; they wouldn't attack their allies. So, who did it? Spottedpaw's head spun with all the questions that whirled around her mind. She tried to push the questions away and searched the crowd for the one cat she hoped was safe above all others, quivering in fear. Spottedpaw didn't realize she was holding her breath until she let it out in a relieved sigh at the sight of Crowflight's smoky gray pelt among the cats. She felt her heart do that flutter it always did when she saw him. He was watching the gorse tunnel, his fur bristling and amber eyes wide. As Spottedpaw and Redfoot came into camp he sagged from emotion, his fur flattening. Then he whirled and stalked over to join a group of warrior talking to each other in hushed, worried tones. Spottedpaw stared after him. _What in StarClan's name was that? _ She sighed. _Why is he so confusing?_

Suddenly Leopardpaw bounded up to them, weaving in and out of the groups of cats waiting anxiously for Whitestar. "Are you okay?" he demanded, eyes fixed on Spottedpaw. What she really wanted to do was wail, _No! Something horrible is loose in the forest, we're prey in our own territory, and Rosethorn's dead! How can anyone be okay?_,but she just nodded.The golden tabby apprentice visibly relaxed at her signal. "Did you hear?" he panted. "Rosethorn was murdered! Jayflight found bite marks in her neck!"

Redfoot let out a hiss of shock, but the news wasn't new to Spottedpaw. She tried to act surprised, which wasn't hard; shock and surprise were close to the same thing.

Leopardpaw stroked his tail down Spottedpaw's flank. Spottedpaw wanted to flinch away, but she didn't want to hurt him, so she forced herself to stay still. "I'm glad you're safe," Leopardpaw whispered. He stared into her eyes until she uncomfortably looked away. The golden apprentice straightened. "I've got to go tell the patrols to come back to camp," he explained. "Foxpelt's going with me," he added at Redfoot's look. "Whitestar's orders. No apprentices are to leave the camp without a warrior going with them."

He touched the tip of his nose to Spottedpaw's ear in farewell and dashed out the gorse tunnel.

"We should go pay our respects," Redfoot murmured and slowly began to pad to Rosethorn's body. Spottedpaw followed and crouched down, burying her nose in Rosethorn's cold ginger fur. A wave of sorrow made her want to wail like a lost kit.

Stormpaw and Mouseleap bounded into the camp, eyes wide and fur bristling, with the rest of the patrol, Foxpelt and Leopardpaw right behind them. The patrol, Foxpelt and Leopardpaw headed straight to Whitestar's den to report as Mouseleap let out a sad, high wail and dashed to the dead ginger warrior, burying her face in her fur. Stormpaw pressed his nose to her fur in comfort, then padded around his mentor to join his sister.

"Rosethorn was her littermate," he explained, eyes dull with grief. He crouched down beside Spottedpaw, tucking his paws beneath his chest as Spottedpaw glanced at the keening brown warrior, her heart heavy and feeling like a stone had lodged itself in her throat._ Oh, Mouseleap, I'm so sorry! _

"We were on our way back to camp when Leopardpaw found us," Stormpaw continued. "He told us Whitestar wanted us back in camp and that Rosethorn was dead, but he didn't tell us how she died."

Spottedpaw, feeling more tired than she could ever remember being in her life, relayed the information Leopardpaw told them, choosing not to tell him about her vision at the moment. Stormpaw's eyes widened when she told him about the bite marks. His fur puffed out in fury. "How dare those mangy RiverClan cats murder Rosethorn?" he spat.

"I don't think it was RiverClan," Spottedpaw interrupted him.

"But who else could it be?" he asked, staring at her in disbelief. "We know they wanted revenge for Briarthorn's death, so they must have killed her!"

Spottedpaw opened her mouth to reply, but closed it as Whitestar sprang on the Highrock. Since the Clan was already gathered, he didn't yowl the summons but launched straight into the meeting.

"We have lost a brave warrior today," he meowed sadly. "We will mourn Rosethorn for many moons to come." He straightened and looked down on the cats gathered below. "I know that most of you believe that she was murdered by RiverClan." An angry murmur rippled through the cats as fur bristled, eyes narrowed furiously and claws unsheathed. Weaseltail, a skinny brown tom with a long thin tail, hissed.

"We _know_ they did," he spat. "They wanted revenge for the death of one of their cats, didn't they? Of course they killed Rosethorn."

Whitestar met the tom's angry stare. "I've done an investigation of our cats into the matter of Briarthorn's death, and I'm certain that it was not one of our cats who killed her."

Weaseltail cut him off again, tail tip twitching impatiently. "Of course we didn't! And what does that have to do with it?" Spottedpaw glared at him and thought that he deserved his name. _He's hotheaded, reckless, aggressive, _and_ he looks like a weasel, _she thought, narrowing her eyes at him. _How dare he interrupt Whitestar! _

If Whitestar was mad, he didn't show it. He beckoned with his tail to a cat sitting close enough to the Highrock to be half-hidden in its shadow. "Lakefur, would you tell us how and when you found Rosethorn?"

Lakefur, a quiet, long-furred, blue-gray tom, timidly stepped forward. "I left camp to get an early start at hunting, and I chose to go hunt by the Thunderpath near Snakerocks," he mewed hesitantly, ears flattened back against his skull from nervousness. "I decided I would just hunt until I got there, then I would head back to camp. That's when I found her. She was just lying there, a look of shock on her face. I tried to get her to wake up, but she wouldn't, and Rosethorn wouldn't scare someone like that, so I knew she was dead. I picked her up and carried her back to camp." Whitestar nodded and with a sigh of relief Lakefur stepped back into the throng.

"You see?" Whitestar announced, fixing his green-eyed stare on Weaseltail. "There is no way RiverClan could've gotten that far into our territory without being caught. In fact," he added, "Sandfur led the dawn patrol along the RiverClan border. Did you smell any RiverClan warriors over our side of the border, Sandfur?"

The sandy-colored tom shook his head. "Nothing."

Weaseltail growled under his breath as Whitestar continued on. "Thank you, Sandfur. Now that we know that it wasn't RiverClan, we will not attack their camp." He glanced at Weaseltail and his friends. "In the meanwhile, we will keep a lookout for Rosethorn's murderer. No apprentice will leave the camp without at least one warrior going with them. I don't think the killer will attack a whole Clan, but I want two warriors in the camp at all times." Spottedpaw felt a thrill of concern. _It's going to be hard keeping the Clan fed and managing patrols if two warriors have to stay behind each time…but what else can he do? _

Dawnfur, a cream-colored she-cat expecting to have her kits soon, curled her tail anxiously around her belly. "My kits and I won't be safe until we've found who killed Rosethorn," she fretted. Her mate, Sunspark, whispered comfortingly into her ear as Whitestar acknowledged her words with a twitch of his ears.

"We will not rest until the killer is apprehended, Dawnfur," he promised. "Hawkflight, Reedtail, Splashpelt, I want you to search the forest to see if you can pick up a trace of any foreign scent that might give us a clue to who the killer is. Start at Snakerocks and work your way to the Great Sycamore, then come right back. I'll send Smokefoot, Appletail, and Brightwing to cover the rest of the territory." The chosen cats nodded and sped off. Whitestar lifted his head, the sunlight glinting off his white fur so brightly Spottedpaw had to squint to look at him. "In the meantime, we will give thanks to StarClan for Rosethorn's life. Icestorm, I want to speak with you for a moment." He leaped down from the Highrock and whisked into his den, the Clan deputy at his heels. Spottedpaw felt a prick of frustration as she watched the Clan leader and Icestorm vanish into Whitestar's den. _How am I supposed to tell him about my dreams when he's always surrounded by other cats? _

Some of the Clan broke up into groups and talked to each other in hushed voices, including Weaseltail and his friends, who whispered to each other and sent angry glares in the direction of Whitestar's den. Spottedpaw strained her ears, but they were too far away for her to catch what they were saying. The other cats went to sit vigil by the dead ginger warrior. Stormpaw mewed a quick good-bye to Spottedpaw and padded over to sit by Mouseleap, pressing his gray-and-white fur to her brown pelt as she trembled in sorrow. Fawnpaw joined them and sat close to Stormpaw's side. Spottedpaw turned and padded slowly back to Rosethorn's body, fighting to keep putting one paw in front of the other. She settled down next to the dead warrior where she could keep one eye on Whitestar's den and glanced up at the sun with a feeling of surprise. How was it only sunhigh? It felt like moons had passed since the time she'd left the camp that morning.

Leopardpaw padded up to her and pressed himself close, not saying anything. Spottedpaw was grateful for his silent comfort; it helped to calm her restlessness. Her itched to be doing something, anything, than just sitting there. At least when Whitestar was speaking, she had something to focus on other than the guilt and sorrow that was now swamping her mind like the river at full flood. Spottedpaw half-wished he'd sent her on the patrols to find Rosethorn's killer so that she could be doing something helpful, but Whitestar wouldn't want an untrained apprentice out there with the murderer still loose. And besides, she couldn't leave until she'd had a chance to talk to Whitestar.

As she was waiting for him, her sadness frayed away into a sense of determination, cold and hard as ice. It didn't smolder inside her like anger; it was a rush of clear-headedness like the time during her first moon of being an apprentice, when the first snows fell and she slipped into the icy river half-asleep. The guilt was still there, hovering on the edges of her mind, but it wasn't overwhelming her like before. _I swear on the name of StarClan,_ she vowed, _that I will avenge your death, Rosethorn. I won't let your murderer get away with this. _Mind cleared and with a strong sense of purpose now, Spottedpaw fixed her eyes on the lichen overhanging Whitestar's den and waited. 

Finally Icestorm left. Spottedpaw quickly scrambled to her paws, meowing a quick "excuse me" to Leopardpaw, and hurried to Whitestar's den, but suddenly Jayflight stood in her way. "Spottedpaw, may I talk to you for a moment?"

He turned away from her and stalked to his den. Spottedpaw shot a last glance at Whitestar's den, considering just ignoring the medicine cat, but Jayflight sent her a glare over his shoulder like he read her thoughts. She sighed in exasperation and grumbled under her breath as she followed him to his den.

When they reached the fern-enclosed clearing where Jayflight kept his herbs, the medicine cat spun around and sat, tucking his tail neatly over his paws and fixing her with a blue-eyed stare.

"Do you know anything about Rosethorn's death?" he asked, eyes filled with desperation and urgency.

Spottedpaw looked at him in shock. _He knows about the dreams! _Suddenly she felt a deep sense of relief that someone else knew. She hadn't realized just how heavy the burden was until it was taken off her shoulders.

Spottedpaw thought back to her visions. "I know that it wasn't RiverClan," she mewed slowly, "and I _think_ he – or she - acted alone. I also know that Rosethorn died quickly; she didn't have time to struggle or anything. She was ambushed. And the killer was smart; he managed to completely hide his – or her –scent from Rosethorn, and she didn't sense him or her until it was too late."

Jayflight's tail tip twitched. "Is that all?"

Spottedpaw blinked. _What does he expect? That I know who did it? _She nodded. "That's it."

Jayflight's eyes narrowed but he dismissed her with a twitch of his ears. "All right. You can go now."

Spottedpaw turned and padded back into the clearing, anxious to tell Whitestar about her dreams. Even if Jayflight knew, she should still tell Whitestar.

She skidded to a stop and stared in frustration when she saw Whitestar's distinctive fur among those sitting vigil for Rosethorn. She couldn't interrupt the vigil. Spottedpaw blinked up at the sky, paws prickling with disappointment. It was nearly sundown, and only those who were closest to Rosethorn would sit vigil for her now. She turned and padded slowly to the apprentices' den, tail drooping and head bowed, and curled up in her nest, asleep almost as soon as her eyes closed.


	13. Chapter 11

**_Chapter Eleven_**

Spottedpaw raced through the shadowy forest, bracken whipping at her face. The tree branches arched overhead and blocked out the light of the moon, the stars. A damp white fog hovered over the ground, rising to Spottedpaw's chest and making her fur cling uncomfortably to her sides. Cries for help and yowls of pain from her Clanmates spurred her on as she tried to find them, tried to help them.

Whitestar's voice rose above the din. "StarClan, help us!" Stormpaw screeched in terror as Redfoot cried out in agony. Icestorm howled in pain, while Leopardpaw shrieked in horror. Then it was Crowflight's meow.

"StarClan, where are you?!"

The sound of that voice, shrill with panic and anguish, forced her on even faster, until finally unable to take another step, she stumbled to a halt and stared wildly around her. "Where are you?" she cried desperately. "What's wrong?"

The voices of her friends changed, pleading with her to come and help them, save them. She forced her paws to move and bounded on, the air stabbing through her lungs like the slice of a claw.

All of a sudden a ghostly, evil laugh echoed through the trees. "Run on, little apprentice," it crooned, then exploded into another fit of maniacal laughter. Spottedpaw felt like she was running through quicksand or thick mud; her running slowed to a crawl, every step becoming more of an effort until she stood frozen, straining to work her paws. She tried to open her mouth to scream, but she couldn't move; she was trapped there, listening to the horrible laugh batter at her ears, her mind. She squeezed her eyes shut, striving to move, hearing her Clanmates beg her for help she couldn't give them.

Suddenly the shrieks and cries, the malevolent laugh, were cut off, the forest silent. A feeling of peace, like a kit curled up in the curve of its mother's belly, stole over her as a voice she knew whispered in her ear.

"It's all right, dear one."

Spottedpaw opened her eyes and stared into the gentle face of her mother, the blue eyes watching her with warmth and love. She was out of the dark forest and back at Fourtrees, the moon and stars glowing brightly overhead.

Suddenly able to move again, Spottedpaw turned her head and buried her muzzle in her mother's soft gray fur, shudders rippling the fur on her spine. Her Clanmates' desperate cries echoed in her mind.

"Why did StarClan send me that dream?" she whimpered.

Petal affectionately nuzzled her and gave her a comforting lick. "StarClan didn't send you that dream," she murmured. "That was a nightmare of your own making."

Spottedpaw trembled. "It was awful," she whispered.

Petal trailed her tail down Spottedpaw's flank. "I know," she meowed and waited until Spottedpaw stopped quivering.

"Are you all right now?" she asked. At Spottedpaw's nod, she straightened. "There is a cat who wishes to speak with you," she said, and nodded at the ferns on the right side if the clearing. The bracken rustled as a ginger she-cat padded out into the open and joined Spottedpaw and Petal in front of the Great Rock. Spottedpaw stared in shock at the cat's face.

"Rosethorn?" she gasped.

The ginger warrior purred and touched Spottedpaw's nose in greeting. Spottedpaw closed her eyes and drank in the warriors' scent, the familiar smell now mixed with the smell of cold starshine and wind like her mother's.

Rosethorn stepped back and stared in Spottedpaw's eyes. "Promise me you will avenge my death," she meowed.

Spottedpaw nodded. "I will." She flicked her ears uncertainly, then asked, "Can you tell me what killed you?"

Rosethorn bowed her head, and Spottedpaw's vision of her death briefly hid the clearing and the dead warrior from sight. The heavy weight, the biting pain, and Spottedpaw's eyesight returned.

"I can't tell you," Rosethorn replied, shuddering. "I don't know." She hesitated, then added softly, "Please tell Reedtail and Mouseleap I'll miss them."

Spottedpaw blinked at her, feeling like a stone had lodged itself in her throat. "Of course," she whispered, remembering the dead ginger warrior's mate and her sister.

Rosethorn flicked her with her tail. "Thank you," she choked out, her eyes brimming with gratitude. She turned and padded back through the ferns and vanished from sight.

Petal watched Rosethorn leave, eyes dark with sorrow, and turned to her daughter. "It has begun," she whispered.

Spottedpaw searched her mother's face. "What has?"

Petal meowed, "the time of darkness has come" and vanished.

Spottedpaw was alone in the clearing.

* * *

Spottedpaw woke with a jolt.

_The time of darkness has come? _She shivered at her mother's ominous words.

The silvery moonlight filtered through the ferns of the apprentices' den, the soft snores of Stormpaw filling the silence. Spottedpaw shook her fur and peered out into the camp. Rosethorn's body was laid out in the middle of the camp, fragrant with the mint and rosemary the queens had rubbed on her fur as they did with every cat that died. Spottedpaw shuddered; even herbs couldn't fully mask the smell of death.

Her ears pricked as she saw the white tip of Whitestar's tail whisk into his den. Finally, the leader was alone. She couldn't miss this opportunity to tell him about her dreams.

Spottedpaw gingerly stepped out of the apprentices' den and edged around the mourning cats, keeping to the dark shadows at the border of the camp. Her chest felt hollow with sadness at the sight of the dead ginger warrior. She hesitated when she glimpsed Mouseleap and Reedtail among the crouching cats, remembering Rosethorn's message. _I'll tell them later, _she thought and crept the last few tail-lengths to Whitestar's den.

Spottedpaw paused a heartbeat before striding in to nervously smooth her ruffled fur, then lifted her chin, straightened her back and pushed aside the hanging lichen, padding into the little cave that was the den of ThunderClan's leaders from the time the Clans were formed. Moonlight filtering through the lichen lit up the figure of Whitestar, who had scented her outside his den, waiting for her with his ears pricked with curiosity.

"What is it, Spottedpaw?" he meowed, tucking his large snowy-white paws under his chest and fixing his green eyes on hers.

She shuffled her paws in the dirt of the den floor. "I had a dream…" she meowed nervously.

Whitestar listened silently as she explained, his eyes widening as she described her vision of Rosethorn's death. When she finished, he stared absently at the den walls, restlessly raking the moss in his nest with his claws.

"I need to go to Highstones…," he whispered.

Spottedpaw, relieved to have finally told him and a bit worried, watched him anxiously, her ears pressed back against her head and tail flicking from side to side. Was he talking to her? Should she wait? She noticed with a jolt of surprise that he didn't seem shocked at all that one of his apprentices was having visions of StarClan. Had he been expecting it? Had he already known, like Jayflight?

She pushed the thoughts away and forced her tail to stop twitching.

When he still didn't speak, she started to back out of the den, but at the scrape of her claws against the floor Whitestar looked up.

"I need to go to Highstones," he repeated clearly, "and I want you to come with me."

Spottedpaw stared at him in shock. "What?" This wasn't what she'd expected.

Whitestar got to his paws. "Will you come?" he asked. "All apprentices must travel to Highstones before they become warriors," he added. "Cloverpaw, Fawnpaw and Leopardpaw have already gone.

Spottedpaw drew in a deep breath, her mind spinning with tales of the place where medicine cats and leaders went to share tongues with their warrior ancestors.

"I'll take Stormpaw with me next time," Whitestar meowed as she opened her mouth to ask him exactly that.

Spottedpaw stood up straight and lifted her chin. "I'll come."


	14. Chapter 12

**Thanks for the fav, EeveeCelebi749 and Cucumber Periwinkle :) !!! **

**_Chapter Twelve_**

Spottedpaw looked up at the dark, square opening of Mothermouth with a prickle of fear and awe shivering down her spine. In the orange light of sun-fall, the hole was darker than the blackest night. A cold draft, smelling of earth and stone that had never felt the warmth of the sun, blew out of the cave, making Spottedpaw fluff up her fur even more.

She eyed the menacing black storm clouds billowing on the far horizon with a flicker of unease. The sky had been clear when they left, but no such luck now. _I hope we can make it back before the storm hits…._A cold wind and the hint of rain in the air didn't make it seem very likely. She caught Whitestar watching the sky uneasily too, his tail tip twitching.

They hadn't seen a glimpse of WindClan as they crossed the moorland, which made Spottedpaw relieved. She didn't know how they would take it if they caught two warriors, from a Clan accused of murdering, crossing their territory, even if they claimed they were only going to Highstones (which they were, but still).

Her paws and muscles ached from the long journey - even Jayflight's traveling herbs hadn't been able to last the whole trip – and Spottedpaw licked them to clean out the sharp grit that dug into her pads. No sight, smell or sign of prey disturbed the gray, jagged stone, so she shushed her rumbling belly and waited for sun-down, her fur fluffed out against the cold of the stone she and Whitestar were lying on. The air, already chill with leaf-bare, got even colder.

Finally, when the orange and fiery red sky was dimming to a soft blue-black laced with dark gray storm clouds blotting out stars here and there, Whitestar got to his paws and padded to Mothermouth, looking over his shoulder at Spottedpaw. She scrambled to her paws and stretched the stiffness from her limbs.

"It's time," he meowed, and with a flick of his tail stepped into the darkness. "Come on. Follow right behind me and you won't get lost." Spottedpaw shuddered at the thought of wandering those black tunnels forever and bounded after him, afraid of being left behind.

She shivered as she padded into the cave, the stone cutting off the last bit of warmth the setting sun gave, and threw a last, longing look over her shoulder at the dying daylight before following Whitestar. She heard his claws scrape against the floor and followed so closely the tip of his tail brushed across her face. The ice-cold rock under her paws felt smooth from the pawsteps of the countless cats who had walked there before her, and the cold draft made her whiskers twitch. Finally the daylight faded until it was like the tip of a claw piercing the darkness, then that too disappeared and Spottedpaw couldn't even see Whitestar's distinctive white fur right in front of her. Her breath caught in her throat as she envisioned the tons of rock over her head, but she pushed the fear away before it could take hold of her and closed her eyes focused on thoughts of hunting in the lovely, clean, fresh air of the forest. She closed her eyes, as she couldn't see anyway, and let her whiskers brushing against the sides of the tunnel guide her.

She was concentrating so hard on thoughts of the forest that when Whitestar stopped, she nearly barreled into him. Her whiskers, grazing his tail, made her skid to a stop just in time to avoid crashing into him.

"What is it?" she asked, her voice echoing strangely off the smooth stone walls, thinking nervously of the reasons he could've stopped. Maybe the tunnel had caved in, or they were lost, or-

Whitestar interrupted her thoughts with a flick of his tail across her nose. "We're almost to the Moonstone," he meowed. "It'll be getting lighter soon."

Spottedpaw sighed with relief and padded on quicker than before, anxious to see the fabled Moonstone and escape the darkness. Soon, just as Whitestar said, she could see a faint silvery-white glimmer beginning to light up the tunnel.

She gasped, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the light from the darkness, as the narrow passageway opened up into a huge cavern, its gray walls arching high overhead to meet at the top, where a roughly triangular hole let in the light of the stars and a cool, fresh wind from the moors, chasing away the smell of cold rock and earth with smells of heather. In the middle of the cavern, several tail-lengths high, stood a white stone, glittering like countless drops of dew sparkled on its smooth sides and letting off a pale glow. Spottedpaw's fur bristled in awe.

"Great StarClan," she breathed. _So this is where StarClan visits us…_

Suddenly the bright light of the moon filled the triangular hole, and the Moonstone shone like the sun at sun-high, nearly blinding Spottedpaw with its pure white light. At the lighting of the Moonstone, the cavern was suddenly filled with dozens of bodies, brushing her fur and greeting her with quiet mews Spottedpaw had to strain her ears to hear.

"_Welcome, Spottedpaw…Greetings, young apprentice…The chosen one is here…The chosen one…"_

_What chosen one? Who are you? _The voices continued, ignoring her questions. Spottedpaw flinched away from the numberless cats that twined around her in greeting, backing up against the cold cave wall. "I thought you said we were the only ones coming," she cried out in fear, ears flattened against her skull and fur fluffed out. Whitestar blinked at her, startled.

"We are," he meowed, his voice surprised.

Spottedpaw stared at him in shock. _He can't see them? Then…they must be…_

She blinked and tried to think up an excuse that wouldn't make her seem crazy. "Sorry," she apologized. "I guess I just got nervous or something-"

Whitestar cut her off. "This is where StarClan shares dreams with us," he mewed softly, eyes still glinting with curiosity. "Here is where our warrior ancestors chose to visit us, talk to us, advise us. If you say there are cats here, then I believe you." He padded to the Moonstone and lay down, tucking his large white paws under his chest. "I must meet with StarClan now, before the moonlight is wasted." With one last, curious glance at her, he pressed his nose against the silvery-white Moonstone. Immediately his eyes closed and he stiffened as he slept. One of the warriors from StarClan, a pretty brown tabby and white, slunk away from the others and curled up beside Whitestar, her breathing growing slower as she slipped into sleep.

Spottedpaw turned back to face the gathering of cats, with a prickle of unease that Whitestar had believed her so quickly. Wouldn't he have questioned her a bit more? Did he know something she didn't? And why were these cats, if they were StarClan like she thought, here with her, instead of meeting with Whitestar like the brown-and-white tabby?Spottedpaw shivered, half-curious and half-afraid of what these cats were going to say.

A large ginger tom stepped forward from the ranks of starry warriors, meeting her wide-eyed stare with his bright amber eyes. "_We are StarClan." _The sentence was spoken by one voice, but seemed to be spoken by Petal, Cloud, Rosethorn, all the cats she knew who had joined the ranks of the starry ancestors and others she didn't.

"What…what do you want me to do?" Spottedpaw whispered.

Countless unblinking eyes stared at her, blue, green, amber, yellow. "_The time of darkness has come," _they meowed in unison.

Spottedpaw felt a flicker of annoyance. Is that all they could tell her? Her Clan was in danger and all they would say was that darkness was here? She already knew that, for StarClan's sake! She blinked and shoved down her irritation.

"Is that all you have to tell me?" she asked, fighting to keep her voice under control and her annoyance out, deliberately flattening her bristling fur. She felt a brief spark of pride that she was able to keep her voice neutral.

One of the cats, a small brown tabby she-cat in the front row, nodded to herself and spoke out. "She has good diplomacy," she meowed approvingly. Petal, sitting in the front row, watched Spottedpaw with affectionate pride glittering in her blue eyes as the brown warrior continued. "She is keeping her anger under control and out of her voice."

The other cats nodded in agreement.

"Yes."

"She is a good choice."

Spottedpaw shook her head impatiently, crushing down her pleasure at StarClan's praise. _I need to focus; they wouldn't come to see me just to compliment me. _

Spottedpaw glared at them, lifting her chin. "What do you want to tell me?" she asked.

This time, the cats spoke as one again, making the fur on Spottedpaw's hackles rise in awe.

"_Only the warrior of shadows and starlight, in the Clan but not of it, can see what lies hidden to save the Clans."_

"What does that mean?" Spottedpaw whispered.

It was Petal who padded to the front and replied to her question. "It is a prophecy," she meowed. "A prophecy about the cat who will save the five Clans of the forest."

Spottedpaw felt her fur stand on end. "Why are you telling me this? Do you want to tell this cat?"

Petal stroked her flank with her soft gray tail. "No, dear one," she murmured. "_You_ are the cat."

Spottedpaw backed away, ears pressed against her skull and shaking her head. She felt like the whole of Highstones had fallen on her shoulders. How was she, an untrained apprentice, supposed to save the Clans? "No, it can't be me. I'm not even a warrior yet, and the prophecy said a warrior!"

Petal gently nuzzled her flank. "I know," she agreed. "But you will be someday."

Spottedpaw felt a thrill of fear make her heartbeat quicken and make her fur bristle. She was supposed to save the Clans from something not even the Clan leaders could stop? "I can't," she objected.

Petal continued as if she hadn't heard Spottedpaw's protests. "Your fur is the color of the blackest shadows and the white stars that blaze in the night," she meowed. "You were not born in the Clan, but you are training to become one of its warriors."

Spottedpaw shook her head wildly. "No, no, no! How can I be a hero?"

Cloud joined his mate and his daughter, touching his nose to Spottedpaw's ear. "Whether you believe it or not, Spottedpaw, the prophecy is about you. Study your heart. I think you already know that you are the cat of shadows and starlight."

Spottedpaw opened her mouth to protest, but she shut it again and followed her father's suggestion. She searched her heart and feelings and realized that she _did_ know – just as she instinctively trusted these starry cats, she knew. It felt like she had been living her life just for this moment; like she found something she didn't know she'd been searching for. She took a deep breath, sitting up straighter and pricking her ears attentively. "What do you want me to do?"

The ginger tom nodded just once, the approval in his eyes making Spottedpaw straighten up even more. She vowed to herself that she would not fail her Clan, or these cats, as long as there was breath in her body. "Sometimes, the Clans have a hard time looking past their rivalries," the tom continued.

Spottedpaw nodded. "Most of ThunderClan believes RiverClan attacked Rosethorn," she admitted.

The brown tabby she-cat sniffed, her yellow eyes burning with indignation. "How dare they accuse RiverClan! It's as plain as the whiskers on their faces that RiverClan is not to blame!"

The ginger tom, the first cat who had spoken to her, closed his eyes as if trying to keep his temper. "No one is insulting your Clan, Sparrowstar," he growled.

Sparrowstar glared at him. "I should hope not, Thunderstar."

Spottedpaw blinked in wonder. _The cat who founded ThunderClan? Wow! _She blinked and shook herself, focusing all her attention on the ginger tom. _I can't miss what he's going to tell me!_

Thunderstar twitched his whiskers. "As I was saying," he meowed, tossing an irritated glance at Sparrowstar, who ignored him and started to wash her paws, "the Clans don't think much about those who don't care for their way of life. They can fail to see that what they do can affect those cats. You, being not Clanborn, find it easier to understand."

Spottedpaw nodded again. While most of her Clanmates, even Stormpaw, thought that RiverClan had murdered Rosethorn in vengeance, she hadn't believed it for a heartbeat. RiverClan was not the culprit, neither was any other Clan. _It has to be a rogue_, she thought, then shuddered at the realization of how hard it was going to be to find the killer – one completely unknown, dangerous, murderous cat roaming the forest, not restrained by the warrior code or boundaries. She blinked and mentally scolded herself, turning her concentration back to StarClan. _Stop straying off task! _

"You are the only cat in all five Clans who can fully understand this; only you can uncover what lies hidden," Thunderstar continued. A tiny kit, a creamy-colored she-cat, padded to stand beside him, blinking up at Spottedpaw with love, wisdom and pride in her eyes.

"Once you understand your enemy's weaknesses, strengths and motives, you've won half the battle," she squeaked.

Spottedpaw narrowed her eyes at the tiny kit, her scent somehow familiar…"Do I know you?" she asked, tipping her head to one side as she tried to place the kit's scent.

The kit looked down at her paws, shuffling them shyly. "I'm your sister," she mewed. "I was dead when I was born."

Spottedpaw blinked in shock. _That's why she smells familiar – her scent's a mixture of Petal and Cloud's! Jayflight told me that one of my littermates didn't make it, but I never really thought…_

Her sister blinked up at her with wide yellow eyes. "I didn't have a name when I came to join StarClan, so they gave me one instead," she squeaked. "I'm Tawnykit."

Spottedpaw purred and padded to Tawnykit, licking her on the top of her head, her kit-fur soft as down. "Nice to meet you," she meowed, then paused. "Why didn't you meet me before, when I first met Petal and Cloud?"

Tawnykit looked away, ashamed. "I was scared to," she confessed. "I thought you wouldn't like me."

Spottedpaw felt a flicker of sadness. _For all of her wisdom, she's still really just a kit. _She pushed her grief away before Tawnykit could see it, looked at Tawnykit's nervous expression and let out a _mrrow_ of laughter. "Whatever gave you that idea? Of course I like you! We are kin, after all, even if you've joined StarClan."

Tawnykit looked up at her, yellow eyes brimming with hope. "Really?"

"Really really," Spottedpaw assured her.

Tawnykit beamed.

Thunderstar shifted restlessly and looked at the sky through the gap in the cavern roof. "We must go. Remember, Spottedpaw."

Spottedpaw gaped at him. "Go?"

Sparrowstar blinked at her. "Did you think we could stay here forever?"

All around her, cats faded and vanished. _StarClan will always be with you, Spottedpaw… _

Spottedpaw whirled around. "No! Please!"

Tawnykit nuzzled Spottedpaw's front leg. "I'll visit you lots!" she promised. "I love you, sister! Tell Stormpaw I love him, too!"

Petal and Cloud stood behind Tawnykit. "We are proud of you," they told her, and they vanished as well, leaving behind a comforting trace of their scents.

Spottedpaw wanted to wail like a lost kit. _I've just lost my sister for the second time…_Grief made her belly feel weighed down with stones.

Suddenly, the moonlight was cut off by a black storm cloud, drowning the cavern in darkness. Spottedpaw cowered against the wall, feeling her instinctive fear of storms rise up and threaten to swamp her like the river in full flood.

In a sudden flash of lightening, with a boom of thunder that battered at her ear fur, Whitestar's figure was lit up. He jolted awake, sat bolt upright and called, "Spottedpaw! Are you okay?"

She swallowed down her fear. "Y-Yes!" Her voice broke as another jagged, blinding whiteness streaked across the sky.

"Stay where you are! I'll come to you!" Whitestar bounded to Spottedpaw and flicked her with his tail.

"It's okay," he comforted her. "At least it hasn't started to rain yet."

Spottedpaw took a deep breath, forced her bristling fur to lie flat, and nodded.

"Chester's barn isn't far from here," Whitestar continued. "Let's head there. We'll be able to eat as many mice as we want and have actual nests, instead of cold stone and empty bellies. StarClan willing, the rain will hold until we get there." He padded quickly to the tunnel that led back outside, staying beside Spottedpaw the entire way.

Spottedpaw, still trying to keep her fear at bay, tried to take her mind off the storm. "Who's Chester? And what's a barn?"

Whitestar blinked over his shoulder at her. "Chester's just a fat tabby; he's harmless and always ready to help a traveler. He lives in a barn – a huge red Twoleg nest – with his mate, Macy, a little gray tabby. The Twolegs don't care for mice and let Chester and Macy live there so that they can hunt them. The barn is filled with big pile of yellow stuff called straw, or hay. Not as comfortable as moss, but it still beats rock. And the mice there – it's like they _want_ to be eaten!"

Spottedpaw licked her lips. In all the excitement, she'd forgotten her hunger, but it was there now, sharp as thorns. And she was so tired – if it weren't for the storm, and the prospect of sleeping on cold, hard stone, she'd curl up then and there. "Wait," she meowed, remembering. "Won't the Clan be worried?"

"They'll see the storm and know we're at Chester's," Whitestar assured her. "And besides, I told Icestorm that's where we would be if a storm ever hit."

Spottedpaw nodded and trotted a little faster, looking forward to having a full belly and a warm nest.

**Spottedapw finally knows the prophecy!! Now it begins....**

**I didn't have Chester or Macy in my Allegiances because…well, I didn't know they existed until I wrote this chapter. I'll put them in now. **


	15. Chapter 13

**Sorry it's a such a short one and that I haven't updated in a while! I've been busy...**

**_Chapter Thirteen_**

Spottedpaw curled up in the shallow hollow she'd made for herself in the pile of straw heaped up against the wooden wall. The threatening lightening flashes and booming thunder stalked them every step of the way to the barn; the rain had started to pour just as Whitestar and she squeezed through the small hole in the side, thank StarClan. _I _hate_ water, _she thought, shuddering. That incident of falling into the icy stream in the dead of winter as a young apprentice and nearly drowning, then almost dying from exposure, had never exactly made her feel comfortable around water. Unbidden, with that accident fresh in her mind, Spottedpaw's head filled with the roaring of the icebound river on that day she'd fallen in, the freezing current whirling her around, smashing her into the slick, iced-over rocks half-submerged in the water, dragging her down, down, until she was too weak to fight her way back to the surface-

With an immense effort, she wrenched herself away from her memories, gasping for breath like she'd just run to the WindClan border and back. _Come on, _Spottedpaw scolded herself, _if you keep on thinking like this, you'll have nightmares! _She peered around for something to distract her.

A fat mouse scurried out of hiding and crouched next to some spilled yellow stuff Chester had said was called "grain."

"They use it to feed their horses and other animals," he'd explained. "Mice love it too, and they can't resist coming out for a few bites. Crazy, scatter-brained creatures – they don't realize it makes it that much easier to catch them. All you have to do is wait quietly for a minute or so, and out they'll come."

Spottedpaw purred. _Now I know where the phrase "mouse-brain" comes from! Honestly, doesn't that mouse realize that there are cats here?_

She watched it nibble on some grain and scurry away back into the shadows, too full to bother chasing it, then yawned and settled deeper into the straw, flinching as it poked her sharply in the side. Why Chester and Macy didn't prefer nice, soft moss nests was beyond her…didn't they find it pokey, too? She remembered how Macy had seemed nervous and restless, slicking away into the shadows after exchanging polite greetings. _I guess they just aren't comfortable around a lot of other cats, _Spottedpaw decided.

She shifted again, and focused on what was really bothering her, like an itch she couldn't quite reach. _Shadows and starlight…what does StarClan want me to do? What's going to happen? Couldn't they at least say what they darkness was? _She sighed, curling her tail over her nose. _Why can't they just say here's your impending doom, here's your enemy, here's how you beat him, go save the Clans? _Spottedpaw grumbled. _It would make things so much easier…_

Petal's scent drifted around her, mixing with the scent of rain and straw. _But how would you learn if you always told you what to do? Would you truly be free?_

Spottedpaw felt peace steal over her, like she was back in camp, surrounded by her denmates' warm fur and soft breathing, knowing that everything would turn out the way it was supposed to. _StarClan's right, _she thought drowsily. _They'll always be with me…I'll know what I need to when I need to. _

She closed her eyes and fell asleep to the rhythm of rain pounding on the roof, her dreams filled with starry cats who watched over as she slept.

**Come on! Please press the little green button! Please! You know you want to....**


	16. Chapter 14

**Thanks a BILLION to all those who reviewed and stuff! I really appreciate it!**

**_Chapter Fourteen_**

Spottedpaw yawned and fluffed out her black and white fur. It was near the end of leaf-bare and almost new-leaf, but the air was plenty cold. Spottedpaw was sitting at the base of the stump by the apprentices' den, her favorite spot to sit and watch the sun rise and the camp wake up.

She and Whitestar had gotten there early last morning; the storm had cleared up late that night, so thankfully they hadn't had to walk home in the rain. She'd been excused from apprentice duties and training for the day, so she was feeling re-energized and itching to get on with the day.

Waiting for Stormpaw and their mentors to wake up, she lazily stretched and looked around the camp. Her breath caught in her throat as Crowflight padded out of the warrior's den, sleek smoky gray fur gleaming in the pale light of dawn. Suddenly Cloverpaw, who was probably waiting for the gray warrior to appear too, trotted out of the apprentice's den to the gray warrior's side, brushing past Spottedpaw on her way. Spottedpaw growled under her breath at the ginger and white she-cat, amber eyes boring angrily into her back. Their friendship had faded and finally vanished, ever since Cloverpaw decided she liked Crowflight, too.

Cloverpaw curled her tail around Crowflight's neck. Spottedpaw strained her ears, trying to eavesdrop with looking like she was eavesdropping. It was harder than she thought.

"After training today," Cloverpaw was saying, "d'you want to go hunting together?"

The gray warrior seemed distracted. "Sorry, but I can't." He tired to shake her off, but the ginger and white she-cat followed him. "Well, how about tomorrow?"

Crowflight stopped and pulled a face; Cloverpaw, behind him, didn't see his exasperated grimace, but Spottedpaw did. "No, really, today's busy for me, what with all those extra patrols Whitestar ordered after Rosethorn died."

Cloverpaw pouted. "Oh, okay, then." She turned to leave. Crowflight, still distracted, walked on, until he tripped over a loose stone and with a shocked yowl tumbled head over paws, landing with a huff next to Spottedpaw. Spottedpaw couldn't help herself; he looked so funny lying eagle-spread on his belly, with a complete look of shock on his face, that she let out a _mrrow_ of laughter.

"That's a wonderful imitation of a dead squirrel," she chuckled. Crowflight just stared at her, which of course made her laugh even harder. Then, he _laughed along with her!_

Spottedpaw bent down to help him up, still laughing. She looked up and caught her breath to see his face so close to hers. Crowflight stared at her, staring like he never wanted to look away, amber eyes bright with something she didn't know. Almost like he didn't realize what he was doing, he gently brushed his tail down her flank. Spottedpaw's head felt like it was in the clouds. A winged bird took flight in her chest, gently brushing her heart with its feathers.

Suddenly Cloverpaw bounded over. "Great StarClan, that was a stumble! Are you okay?" she exclaimed, sniffing him for injuries. Crowflight straightened and avoided Spottedpaw's eyes. "I'm fine," he muttered and padded quickly out the gorse tunnel.

Spottedpaw stared after him, feeling lost. Cloverpaw smirked at her and brushed past her to find her mentor.

Cats began to pad out of their dens, blinking sleepiness from their eyes and stretching, exchanging greetings with each other, the other apprentices, Redfoot and Mouseleap among them. Redfoot picked up a vole from yesterday's hunting and gave himself a good wash.

"We'll go training as soon as I finish this," he called. Spottedpaw dipped her head in acknowledgement, picked up a starling and padded over to sit by Fawnpaw, her head spinning with thoughts of amber eyes staring into hers and a gentle tail stroking her fur...

**Awww! Spottedpaw's got it bad! Maybe Crowflight does, too....**

**Check out my new story, Through the Fire and the Flames!**

**Review please! With a cherry on top!**


	17. Chapter 15

**Thanks, xThexCreatorx, Nettleclaw and everyone who reviewed and stuff!**

**_Chapter 15_**

Fawnpaw flicked Spottedapw with her tail. "You okay? You seem a little distracted."

"No, I'm fine," Spottedpaw meowed, watching Crowflight out of the corner of her eye as he left out the gorse tunnel.

Fawnpaw purred in amusement. "Well, if you say so..." She heaved herself to her paws as her mentor, Raventail, called from the other side of camp. "I'll see you later!" she called over her shoulder.

"Bye!" Spottedpaw called and turned back to her starling.

Just as she was finishing up, Mouseleap hailed her with a wave of her tail. "Hey, Spottedpaw! Me and Redfoot decided to take you and Stormpaw out on an assessment," the brown warrior called from where she and Redfoot were licking the last traces of fresh-kill from their whiskers. "It's time to test your skills."

"Yes!" Stormpaw, grooming himself a few tail-lengths away, bounced to his paws and scampered to the gorse tunnel. Spottedpaw twitched her whiskers in amusement as she watched him go. _That furball! _She ate one last bite and stretched luxuriously before joining her brother. Determined to contain herself better, she walked slowly over, only her twitching tail tip showed her excitement. She remembered what Doveflight always used to say. _You need him to keep you on your paws, and he needs you to keep his paws on the ground! _Spottedpaw purred briefly with amusement.

Stormpaw's voice cut through her thoughts.

"Come on, Spottedpaw! Or do you want to be an elder before we leave?"

Spottedpaw quickly caught up to them and rushed through the forest side by side with her companions, the undergrowth a green blur speeding past. Enjoying the run immensely, she pushed her legs faster and faster, until she was keeping pace with the long-legged Mouseleap. She was the fastest of all the apprentices, and could even match some of the warriors pace for pace.

Their pace slowed as they reached a sunlit clearing. "See what you can smell," Redfoot instructed the two apprentices. "Use your noses."

"Mouse," Stormpaw meowed thoughtfully, licking his chops.

"What else?" Redfoot encouraged.

Obediently, Spottedpaw opened her mouth to draw the air over her scent glands. _Yep, mouse. _The playful breeze tugging at her fur suddenly changed, and a strong, rank smell hit her hard enough to make her gag. _What in the name of StarClan stinks that bad? _"What's that?" she gasped.

Stormpaw sniffed and wrinkled his nose at the smell, shooting her a perplexed look and shrugging his broad gray shoulders. Redfoot and Mouseleap glanced at each other and scented the air as well.

"Dog," Redfoot hissed. Beside him, Mouseleap scented the air again.

"It's strong," she meowed thoughtfully. "I'd say it passed by here right before we arrived. But there's one thing that worries me." The brown warrior paused. "I can't scent its Twolegs."

"A dog loose in the forest?" Redfoot growled. "We need to go back to camp and get a patrol. We can't let it find the camp."

"Perhaps its Twolegs will find it soon," Mouseleap suggested hopefully. "They always come looking for their lost pets."

"But what if they come looking for it and stumble across the camp?"

Suddenly Stormpaw spoke up. "What's that?" he mewed nervously. Redfoot and Mouseleap fell silent, ears pricked and shoulders tense.

Spottedpaw pricked her ears, too. Something was crashing through the undergrowth towards them; something huge by the sound of it. She tried to pick up its scent, but the breeze had changed course again and was blowing the smell away from them. _I bet a moon of dawn patrols that's what made that disgusting smell…_ She felt a little shiver of fear at the thought.

A heartbeat later, a black nose suddenly shoved its way through the bracken on the other side of the clearing, followed by slavering jaws and yellow teeth. Two dark, angry eyes stared at the cats for a heartbeat, as the dog slowly prowled farther out into the clearing and snarled, pulling his lips back from his teeth. Spottedpaw felt her blood chill and the warm sunlight of green-leaf turn cold. She let out a tiny whimper of terror, her black and white pelt fluffed out in fear. This was not one of the pampered pets she'd seen in Twoleg gardens or being walked in the forest; this huge, black creature looked born to kill and hunger for blood. The dog stopped and crouched, growling.

Suddenly it leaped for the cats with a thunderous bark, claws reaching and jaws snapping.

"Run!" Redfoot screeched. As one, the cats turned tail and fled. Spottedpaw ran as fast as she could move her paws, faster than she had ever run in her life. She could feel the dog's hot, rancid breath on her back and propelled herself faster. Branches whipped at her face, ferns and bracken waving madly as she streaked through the forest. Her flanks heaved as she fought for breath, and her mouth gaped in a silent scream as she gulped in air.

She heard the dog snarl and looked over her shoulder to see it sailing through the air towards her, those flaming, mad eyes staring into hers, its teeth bared. She let out a shriek of pure terror and swerved.

The dog tried to change his course in midleap to follow her, but it landed wrong and yelped as it tumbled head over paws. The cats kept on running.

Suddenly Redfoot skidded to a stop and swung around to face the badger.

Mouseleap paused and looked at the ginger warrior, her flanks heaving as she fought for breath. "What in StarClan's name are you doing?" she screeched.

"Go on!" Redfoot yowled. "We can't lead it to the camp!"

Mouseleap stared at him in shock. "Redfoot…" she whispered.

"Run, Mouseleap!" Redfoot let out a thunderous caterwaul and leaped at the dog, its footing regained, as it pounded towards the fleeing cats.

Spottedpaw forced her paws into a stumbling run as Mouseleap spun around and pounded away, with the apprentices at her heels. She looked over her shoulder; her last glance of her mentor before dog and warrior were swallowed up by the forest was the sight of Redfoot scoring his claws across the dog's nose and being flung through the air by a huge black paw.

"No!" she screeched, leaping back the way they had come, terror forgotten. Spottedpaw thrust her way between her mentor just as the dog was about to bite, scoring her claws over its face. It yelped in pain and drew back, shaking drops of blood out of its eyes. Spottedpaw nudged Redfoot to his feet and propelled him towards Stormpaw and Mouseleap had gone; her mentor's blood pooled on the ground, dark and shiny. "Go!" she yowled. "Run!"

Redfoot tried to dig in his heels. "No! I order you to go back to camp!" he gasped.

"I'm not going to let you die!" she meowed fiercely, giving him one final shove. The dog barreled towards them, recovered from the shock of Spottedpaw's attack. Spottedpaw leaped at it, slicing its face once more and shooting off in the opposite direction, away from Redfoot and the camp. The dog followed, snarling, determined to take revenge on the cat that had caused him pain.

She looked over her shoulder at it to see how much it was gaining, then swung her gaze forward and her amber eyes stretched wide with horror. _I'll never make it! _A great fallen log, its twisted black branches reaching for the reddening sky, barricaded the path less than three tail-lengths away. With no time to stop, she flattened her ears against her head and leaped.

A sudden pain, sharp as thorns, made her shriek as one of her hind paws caught in a fork between two branches and jerked her to a standstill. "StarClan help me!" she screamed.

The dog ran closer and closer with every stride. She twisted and flailed, trying to free her paw, but she was trapped, and every movement sent a fresh wave of red-hot pain through her leg.

The dog tried to leap over the fallen tree, but it mistimed the jump and crashed into the log, wrenching her paw free and sending her flying. She landed heavily on her side, gasping as the air was knocked out of her. Spottedpaw couldn't breathe, the forest spinning around her; the dog was coming closer, closer, she felt its heavy paws shake the ground with every footfall…She struggled for breath, sides heaving as she got to her paws. Still breathless, her head spinning, she tried to sidestep out of the dog's way, but she stumbled and the dog, going too fast to stop, rammed into her again, throwing her against a tree trunk. She shook her head, and regained her footing before the dog turned. Thank StarClan her head had cleared. Hoarsely screeching her battle cry, she darted under its paws, ignoring the lancing pain her hind paw was sending through her body, and slashed at its belly. The dog, now confused and in pain, whirled, trying to find Spottedpaw. One of its heavy, flailing paws hit her in the ribs, tossing her to the other side of the clearing, and she felt a sharp, sudden pain that made her wail like a lost kit. This time, she couldn't get up at all; pain pinned her to the ground with red-hot claws. Her paws scrabbled weakly at the dirt as she tried to regain her footing as a thick, black darkness dimmed her vision. _I've failed…_

The dog rushed at her and seized her scruff between his teeth. Spottedpaw felt a new pain thrust away the cloud of darkness as its thorn-sharp teeth dug into her fur. Suddenly a yowl sliced through the dog's snarls, a familiar voice screaming her name…

"No!"

A smoky gray blur streaked towards them and cannoned into the dog's side, Spottedpaw dropping heavily to the ground. More sounds of battle reached her ears, then suddenly the clearing was silent, except for her rescuer's rasping breaths and the dog's fleeing yelps.

Crowflight rushed to Spottedpaw's side, nosing her flank for wounds. "Spottedpaw? Are you okay?"

Spottedpaw couldn't answer; she barely heard him. Her body was one entire mass of hot, burning, never-ending pain.

She hardly felt it when Crowflight gently picked her up in his teeth and began to carry her to camp; the thick darkness smothering her like thick black fur.


	18. Chapter 16

**As usual, thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm glad you like it so much, Nettleclaw! Okay...on with the story! **

**_Chapter 15_**

"_It is not your time to join the ranks of StarClan, precious_." Spottedpaw knew that voice, knew it like the scent of her own Clan.

"Mother?"

"_It is not your time yet_…_."_

Spottedpaw opened her eyes, staring up at gray stone instead of the star-bright sky she expected to see. For a heartbeat she didn't understand where she was, but then she knew. She was in Jayflight's den.

_Then…I'm not dead?_

"Oh, Spottedpaw," a familiar voice gasped. "I thought you'd never wake up…" Spottedpaw lifted her head with some effort and saw Crowflight sitting in a mossy nest beside hers, staring at her with wild joy and relief in his eyes. He leapt to his paws and licked her cheek, purring too hard to speak. Spottedpaw dropped her head back on the soft moss and feathers in her nest and purred with him, feeling strangely happy as Crowflight covered her head with licks and lightly stroking her flank with his tail tip. A very different burning than that of the pain filled her as she met his eyes. She hesitated.

"But, Crowflight-" she coughed weakly, her side painfully twinging, then regained her breath. "I thought you hated me."

"Believe me, I have never have and will never hate you," Crowflight meowed softly. He settled himself next to her, tucking his paws under his chest, and for a while Spottedpaw and the gray warrior said nothing. Spottedpaw glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, wishing more than anything else in the world that he meant what she hoped he meant. After another heartbeat Crowflight spoke again. "I thought I would die when I saw you lying so still and covered with blood, so broken, never to hear your voice again…I just want you to know, I always thought you were beautiful," he murmured. "Almost from the moment I met you I loved you." Spottedpaw felt a little thrill shiver down her spine.

"What?" she whispered, voice still hoarse and raw. She hardly noticed her throat rasp painfully as she searched his face, barely daring to hope. _Does he…?_

Crowflight avoided her gaze and dropped his eyes to his paws, eyes were bright with grief as he turned his head away. "It's okay," he whispered, his voice trembling slightly with more sadness than Spottedpaw could have imagined. "I'll understand if you choose Leopardpaw."

"Leopardpaw? But Crowflight…why did you pretend to hate me so much?" Spottedpaw's head was spinning.

Crowflight hesitated, although he sounded a more hopeful now that she wasn't immediately rejecting him. "I saw the way Leopardpaw looked at you, and I thought you felt the same way. I didn't want to love you and have to watch you be with someone else, so I tried to forget the way I felt about you. StarClan knows how much I tried." He sighed. "It didn't work. You walk in my dreams…"

Spottedpaw could only stare at him, hoping beyond hope, that what he said was true and that this wasn't a fever-dream. To hear him say that he loved her was what she wanted more than anything else in the world. She knew that now; even though she felt sorry for Leopardpaw, she knew now that he wasn't the cat for her.

Jayflight pushed his way into the den, stopping short when he saw her sitting up. "She's finally awake and you didn't tell me?" He glared at Crowflight, who silently stared challengingly back. Only a flicker of relief flashing in the medicine cat's blue eyes showed how worried he'd been. He padded to Spottedpaw's side. "You have badly bruised ribs, a sprained paw, who knows how many minor cuts and bruises, and you hit your head real hard on that tree! It's a wonder you survived," he meowed. "We weren't sure if you would; you've been sleeping for two days. Your fever broke only last night."

Spottedpaw felt a thrill of terror at how close she'd come to dying before she pushed it away. She'd never been one to let her emotions get the best of her. "Do you have something for my throat?" she rasped.

"Of course. I'll fetch you some honey." He vanished into the crevice where he kept his herbs, tail tip twitching.

Crowflight pressed his flank to hers, so that her black and white fur merged with his smoky gray pelt.

Spottedpaw buried her muzzle in his fur. "Leopardpaw's just a friend," she whispered. "He was always just a friend." She was sure now.

Crowflight's eyes glowed with happiness, but he hesitated for a heartbeat. "Are you sure, though? If he makes you happy…"

"Of course," Spottedpaw mewed firmly, her heart burning with the strength of the feelings she had for him. She was purring so hard she could hardly speak. The two warriors rested side by side in the mossy nest, Crowflight twining his tail with hers and gently grooming her fur. Spottedpaw contentedly pressed her cheek to his.

Then she remembered that Crowflight, too, had an admirer. "What about Cloverpaw?"

Crowflight's amber eyes were puzzled. "What about her?"

Spottedpaw sighed in exasperation and amusement. "You really didn't notice? Cloverpelt's like your Leopardpaw."

"Oh!" Crowflight blinked in understanding. "I never noticed…"

Spottedpaw leaned against his shoulder. "Never mind then," she murmured.

Crowflight rasped his tongue over her shoulder. Spottedpaw purred happily. "I love you, too," she mewed quietly.

**Awww! They finally got together! I know this didn't do much plot-wise and it may not have been very interesting, but it'll bet better! Please, review, too! I don't write just for the reviews, but I like to know what people like about it, what I could do to improve, etc. Hmm...I wonder who lured the dog there? Could it be *gasp* the same something that's been killing cats? *grins evilly* **


	19. Chapter 17

**As usual, thanks to everyone who reviewed and stuff! I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while...blame school. It's been killing my writing time.**

**So, I caught a mistake I made in Chapters 12 and14 with regards to the seasons and fixed it, so if you want to you can read the revised version. It's not much, though, so you probably don't need to. I was just changing the references to the season being leaf-fall to it being the end of leaf-bare, because if it _was_ leaf-fall Spottedpaw would've been an apprentice for like 12 months. Anywho...yeah.**

**My friend, Cucumber Periwinkle, just started an account and uploaded her first fanfiction, a story about ****Eragon****! Please, people, if you like those book or are just looking for something to read, check out her story! It's pretty good! Another friend, cateratelol, has written 8 stories for Warriors and she needs reviews, too, so go check out her stories as well!**

**_Chapter Seventeen_**

"Sagepaw! Thistlepaw! Sagepaw! Thistlepaw!" Splashpelt and Flameclaw, the new mentors, sat proudly beside their new apprentices as the Clan yowled congratulations. Spottedpaw cheered with the rest from the entrance to the tunnel of ferns that led to the medicine cat den. Jayflight had been as fussy as any queen, insisting that she stay close where "he could keep an eye on her." She didn't think anything would happen, especially with Crowflight at her side, but having heard the prophecy, she supposed he didn't want her to die or something, leaving the Clans without a savior.

She was having her own misgivings, too, although not the same ones that Jayflight was having. A pessimistic voice inside her kept muttering what if's, no matter how hard she tried not to think about it, making her nervous and tense. She'd been having mental arguments with herself ever since she'd woken up in the medicine cat den, disputes that went along the lines of what she was thinking right then: _what if whatever's going to happen happens when I'm hurt like this and I can't stop it? No, shut up! The prophecy said I'll stop it, so I'll stop it! But something could happen- Shut it! _

Crowflight leaned into her and licked the top of her head as he sensed her tension. His fur still had bits of moss and bracken stuck to it from his patrol; Whitestar had let him off warrior duties for two days to keep her company before making him rejoin the Clan life a day ago. The gray warrior had protested hotly, but finally gave in when Spottedpaw asked him to and Whitestar pulled the classic "you'll be demoted to cleaning out the elders' den if you don't listen" trick. Crowflight spent every other free moment he had with her, making her laugh in the medicine cat's den until she gasped for breath and Jayflight gave them the evil eye, helping her clean her fur since she couldn't move very well, sharing his fresh-kill, sleeping beside her to keep chase away her nightmares about the dog attack. His presence made all the long, boring hours being stuck in the medicine cat's den bearable. Spottedpaw had plenty of other visitors, from Fawnpaw to Leopardpaw (who kept shooting furious glares at Crowflight, so he wasn't very much of a visitor) to Stormpaw to Mouseleap. Redfoot, given the okay that morning to go back to warrior duties unless his healing wound tore open again, came to see her too. He, and Mouseleap especially, kept apologizing to her, Mouseleap for not realizing she wasn't with them (what was in Spottedpaw's mind wasn't her fault, since she would've left anyway) and Redfoot for "abandoning her" (what Spottedpaw said was a load of fox dung). But none of them made her heart sing like Crowflight. The burden of the prophecy was a heavy one, one that felt like all the boulders of Sunningrocks were piled on her shoulders. His presence helped her to lose some of that weight, to be herself, to not have to worry about saving every cat in the forest from some unknown horrible disaster.

She broke out of her thoughts and glanced over at Cloverpaw, who glowered sullenly at them from the shadows of the clearing. She'd never been easy to get along with, but Spottedpaw had at least been able to call her a friend. Now, though, eaten up by jealousy and envy, she made it clear that she thought Spottedpaw was a rival. Spottedpaw did her best to ignore her angry glare without bringing it to Crowflight's' attention - Crowflight was not exactly happy with Cloverpaw, and she didn't want to make things worse. Crowflight had tried to explain his feelings for Spottedpaw to the ginger-and –white she-cat, but Cloverpaw had refused to accept it, making Crowflight's already large dislike for her grow and making things a lot more difficult for Spottedpaw. Spottedpaw sighed, dismissed the envious she-cat with a twitch of her tail and looked back at Whitestar as he continued speaking.

"And now, we have two young cats who have completed their training. Bluestorm and Foxfur, do you agree that Cloverpaw and Leopardpaw are ready to be made warriors?"

"I do," the two warriors chorused, eyes glittering with pride. Whitestar nodded and beckoned the two apprentices to the Highrock with his tail. Leopardpaw stalked over, fur bristling with delight, Cloverpaw slinking in behind him.

"I'm afraid I must apologize, Leopardpaw and Cloverpaw," Whitestar meowed. "I had promised your ceremonies would be soon last moon, but I with the recent events, it slipped my mind, and for that I am sorry."

Leopardpaw nodded in acceptance, Cloverpaw just twitching her ears as she glared triumphantly at Spottedpaw, happy to have the advantage of being made a warrior before her.

Whitestar leaped down from the Highrock and stood in front of the two cats. "I call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon these apprentices. They have trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend them to you as warriors in their turn. Leopardpaw, do you promise to follow the warrior code and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

Leopardpaw lifted his chin, amber eyes shining. "I do."

Whitestar smiled. "Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Leopardpaw, from this day forth you will be known as Leopardclaw. StarClan honors your strength and your cleverness." He rested his head on the golden tom's head.

Leopardclaw licked his leader's shoulder respectfully and backed away as Whitestar continued with the ceremony, standing in front of Cloverpaw then. "Cloverpaw, do you promise to follow the warrior code and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

Cloverpaw switched her tail smugly. "I do."

"Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Cloverpaw, from this day forth you will be known as Cloverpelt." He rested his muzzle on her head just as he had done with Leopardclaw. "StarClan honors your determination and skill. ThunderClan welcomes you both as full warriors!" Cloverpelt licked his shoulder as Leopardclaw had done and stood back as the Clan cheered.

"Leopardclaw! Cloverpelt! Leopardclaw! Cloverpelt!"

Spottedpaw cheered loudly for them both, nudging the silent Crowflight sharply, who was meeting Cloverpelt's hopeful gaze stonily. He sighed and half-heartedly muttered "Cloverpelt" under his breath once. When Spottedpaw nudged him again more insistently, he snarled under his breath and growled "Leopardclaw" even more quietly, spitting it out like a bad piece of fresh-kill. Spottedpaw rolled her eyes in exasperation, but didn't push him anymore, as the gray warrior absolutely loathed the golden tom, and he wasn't on good terms with Cloverpelt, either. It was all she would be able to get out of him.

Spottedpaw pricked up her ears as Whitestar waved his tail for silence. _This isn't part of the naming ceremony, _she thought, surprised and curious.

The Clan quieted instantly, watching Whitestar alertly as the white tom began to speak.

"Today, I would also like to thank Crowflight, Spottedpaw and her patrol for chasing off the dog. Spottedpaw in particular, for without her courage, Redfoot tells me that he would not be here today. Although she is too young to be made a warrior, we honor her spirit!"

"Spottedpaw! Spottedpaw!" Spottedpaw felt like a new apprentice, overwhelmed with all the attention. Crowflight purred so hard she could feel him vibrating, but his voice rang out clear as the blue sky, bursting with pride, mixing with those of her friends: Redfoot, Stormpaw, Fawnpaw, Doveflight, Mouseleap, yelling at the top of their lungs with delight. Leopardclaw, his eyes filled with happiness for her and hostility towards Crowflight, cheered as well, trying his hardest to drown out Crowflight's mew while Cloverpelt watched Spottedpaw and Crowflight from the shadows, pouting.

Spottedpaw, her fur prickling hot, felt a hint of unfairness. It hadn't been her that had chased away the awful creature, but Crowflight. And besides, it was Redfoot who was the brave one, ready to give up his life so his Clanmates could escape. She opened her mouth to say so when her mentor left Mouseleap's side and slapped his tail over her mouth.

"Don't even think about it," Redfoot commanded, guessing her intentions. Spottedpaw glared at him over his bushy ginger tail.

"But it wasn't me! You stood up to it while we left you, and Crowflight's the one who actually drove it off and saved me in the process!" she protested, her voice muffled by his fur.

Redfoot rolled his eyes. "Please! I was stupid, thinking I could face it alone and letting myself get backed into a corner like that. You were the brave one, coming back for me even though you knew you might die!"

"I didn't think anything at the time!" she objected frostily. "I was too terrified!"

Crowflight joined the argument. "You'd already given it quite a few wounds when I showed up. If you hadn't weakened it so much, I never would've been able to drive it off!"

Redfoot watched her face, eyes glittering with amusement. "Now, you want me to keep embarrassing you, or will you listen?"

Spottedpaw rolled her eyes. "I'll listen," she muttered, trying to keep a straight face. As soon as he took his tail away from her mouth she called out, "Thank you! But Redfoot and Crowflight are the ones you should really thank!" She grinned charmingly at her scowling mentor as Crowflight shook with silent laughter and Whitestar and the Clan mrrowed in amusement, some of them calling out the Crowflight and Redfoot's names to the setting sun.

* * *

Spottedpaw looked up at the sky a day after the naming ceremony, the heavens a deep, dark shade of blue. A bright, white full moon shone brightly out of the cloudless night, glittering stars clustered around it. _The Gathering would start soon_, she thought. She knew she wasn't going, and even though she wanted to hear the news and see her friends, she didn't think she would be able to keep up on the journey there.

Whitestar was surrounded by a crowd of warriors, apprentices, and elders waiting to hear who would be called to attend as he calmly listed names. "Whitefrost, Weaseltail, Hawkflight, Silverstreak, Leopardclaw, Cloverpelt, Flameclaw, Splashpelt, Thistlepaw, Sagepaw, Fawnpaw, and Crowflight!" he yowled. Spottedpaw felt Crowflight stiffen as his name was called. The chosen cats quickly said good-byes and milled around by the gorse tunnel as they did every Gathering night – all except for Crowflight.

"Mouse dung!" he growled, swinging his head around to gaze at her with gentle amber eyes. "I wish I could stay with you," he sighed.

Spottedpaw shrugged, although she wished he could, too, and he knew it. "You'll be able to tell me the news since you'll hear it firsthand, at least," she meowed, always one to try to make the best of things. "Go have fun!"

Crowflight purred farewell, rested his cheek against hers for a heartbeat, and joined the rest of the departing cats just as they left through the gorse tunnel, his tail held high.

Spottedpaw sighed, her gaze lingering after he had disappeared from sight, feeling a prick of disappointment. She was glad Crowflight had gotten to go, even though she half-wished he could stay; she wished Leopardclaw had stayed in camp too, for that matter. She kept trying to get him alone so she could talk to him, but he was either avoiding her, not there or there were other cats around. She stiffly settled down in her now customary spot next to the fern tunnel entrance, eyes fixed on the gorse tunnel; after a few days in Jayflight's bitter, herb-smelling den she'd gotten claustrophobic and longed to rejoin Clan life in some way, even though her ribs and paw hadn't healed enough for her to start training again. Jayflight, sensing that this was an argument he wouldn't win, helped her move her nest from his den to where she sat now.

As usual, without something to distract her, her mind turned to the prophecy and her role in it, her thoughts circling hopelessly around each other, alternating between frustration, speculation, confusion and even anger. She knew who the cat in the prophecy was – herself, though she still had trouble believing that she could be that important – but who was the enemy? What was coming, and how could she stop it? How in the name of StarClan was she supposed to save the entire forest? It seemed impossible for her, an apprentice of only four moons. There were plenty of other cats more qualified for her task! Why couldn't StarClan chose one of them instead? _Why…why…why…_

Spottedpaw's eyes soon grew too heavy for her to keep open, not matter how hard she tried. Giving up on the idea of waiting up for the cats to return from the Gathering and laying her head on her forepaws, she sighed and yawned. _I'll catch Leopardclaw tomorrow, no matter what, _she vowed. Her last thought before giving in to blackness was that she hoped StarClan would visit her tonight and give her guidance, and not stay silent once again as they had every night since she'd left the Moonstone. _I need answers….._

**I think I'll post a second allegiances after this, since the status of so many of my cats have changed. I'll update soon; there will be some interesting news from the Gathering -muahahaha!**

**Plz, plz review! Because if you don't , your shoelaces won't stay tied, the next time you eat an apple it will have a worm in it, angry hornets will chase you the next time you step outside AND YOU DON'T WANT THAT!!!**


	20. Second Allegiances

**Allegiances**

_ThunderClan_

Leader

**Whitestar** – large, muscular white tom with green eyes and left ear torn into a deep "V" shape

Deputy

**Icestorm**–large white tom with yellow eyes

Medicine Cat

**Jayflight**- smoky gray tom with bright blue eyes

Warriors

**Flameclaw**- strong ginger tom with light orange pelt, green eyes, and long, hooked claws

**Apprentice, Thistlepaw**

**Whi****t****efrost**- very light gray she-cat with white muzzle, paws, underbelly, and blue eyes

**Redfoot**- swift, dark ginger tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Spottedpaw**

**Bluestorm**- gray-blue tom with blue eyes

**Cloverpelt**- white she-cat with ginger patches and green eyes

**Raventail**-tall, sleek charcoal-black she-cat with green eyes

**Apprentice, Fawnpaw**

**Sunspark**- lean golden brown tom with dark green eyes

**Brightwing**- light gray and white she-cat with blue eyes

**Sandfur**- pale ginger tom with a sand colored pelt and pale green eyes

**Blazepelt**- dark reddish ginger tom with amber eyes

**Appletail**- white and ginger she-cat with green eyes

**Smokefoot**- very dark gray tom with amber eyes

**Weaseltail**- short-haired dark brown tom with amber eyes and long, thin tail

**Hawkflight**- tall ginger tom with green eyes

**Crowflight**- smoky gray tom with amber eyes

**Lakefur**- long-haired blue-gray tom with dark blue eyes

**Foxpelt**- dark ginger tom with amber eyes

**Leopardclaw**- mottled golden tom with amber eyes

**Mouseleap**- wiry, long-limbed dusky brown she-cat with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Stormpaw**

**Reedtail**- pale tabby tom with amber eyes and a long, thin tail

**Silverstreak**- silver tabby she-cat with blue eyes

**Splashpelt**- tortoiseshell and white she-cat with playful sky-blue eyes

**Apprentice, Sagepaw**

Apprentices

**Thistlepaw** – ginger she-cat with spiky fur and white paws; amber eyes

**Sagepaw** – solid light gray tom with pale green eyes

**Fawnpaw**- dappled light brown she-cat with amber eyes

**Spottedpaw**- pretty black-and-white she-cat with amber eyes

**Stormpaw**- gray-and-white tom with blue eyes

Queens

**Doveflight**- light gray she-cat with blue eyes

**Snowcloud**- all-white she-cat with blue eyes; expecting Hawkflight's kits

**Dawnfur**- cream she-cat with green eyes; expecting Sunspark's kits

Elders

**Whitewhisker**- very old gray-and-white tom with blue eyes; oldest cat in ThunderClan

**Cinderfoot**- old, solid dark gray tom with yellow eyes

**Dapplepelt**- mottled dark brown she-cat with amber eyes

_  
ShadowClan_

Leader

**Sablestar** – beautiful she-cat with mottled dark brown coat and amber eyes

Deputy

**Oakfall**–small brown tabby tom with amber eyes

Medicine Cat

**Pinefur** – dark brown tabby tom with green eyes

Warriors

**Robinflight**- dark ginger she-cat with amber eyes

**Darkwhisker**- very dark brown tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Cinderpaw**

**Scorchfur**- long-limbed, lean black tom with brown underbelly and amber eyes

**Tawnyfur**- tortoiseshell she-cat with amber eyes

**Raincloud**- dark gray tom with blue eyes

**Nightbloom**-tall black she-cat with green eyes

**Apprentice, Swallowpaw**

**Fernfrost**- gray she-cat with darker specks and green eyes

**Icefall**- pure white tom with ice-blue eyes

**Blackstorm**- all-black tom with amber eyes

**Sandstone**- reddish ginger tom with pale green eyes

Apprentices

**Cinderpaw** – dark gray tom with amber eyes

**Swallowpaw**- brown tabby she-cat with green eyes

Queens\

**Breezetail**- black-and-white she-cat with amber eyes; mother of Icefall's kits, Russetkit (dark ginger she-cat with amber eyes) and Swiftkit (brown tabby tom with amber eyes)

Elders

**Slatefur**- dark gray tom with blue eyes

**Brownfur**- brown tabby tom with yellow eyes

_  
WindClan_

Leader

**Cloudstar** – white tom with amber eyes and black tipped tail

Deputy

**Duskpelt**–dusky brown tom with amber eyes

Medicine Cat

**Mudstripe**- brown tabby tom with darker stripes and amber eyes

Warriors

**Nightstripe**- pale brown she-cat with a dark stripe along her spine

**Ashtail**- gray tabby she-cat with blue eyes

**Apprentice, Kestrelpaw**

**Sparrowflight**- brown tabby tom with amber eyes

**Brookflow**- light gray she-cat with blue eyes

**Sootbird**- smoky gray tom with amber eyes

**Mothflight**- gray and white she-cat with green eyes

**Apprentice, Swiftpaw**

**Brightflower**- tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes

**Smallpoppy**- white and ginger she-cat with green eyes

Apprentices

**Kestrelpaw** – dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes

**Swiftpaw**- black and white tom with amber eyes

Queens

**Birdsong**- pretty brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes; mother of Sootbird's kit, Thrushkit (gray speckled tom with green eyes)

Elders]

**Gorsepelt**- gray and white tom with amber eyes

_  
RiverClan_

Leader

**Ivystar** – mottled dark brown she-cat with green eyes

Deputy

**Lionclaw**–golden tabby tom with amber eyes

Medicine Cat

**Heronflight**- gray and white she-cat with unusual blue eyes

Warriors

**Mistyfur **- very pale gray she-cat with blue eyes

**Deerflight**- dappled brown she-cat with amber eyes

**Barkstripe**- brown tabby tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Minnowpaw**

**Rowanclaw**- reddish ginger tom with amber eyes

**Rippletail**- gray tabby tom with blue eyes

**Shadefur**- dark gray tom with blue eyes

**Apprentice, Larkpaw**

**Otterpelt**- light brown she-cat with green eyes

**Swanflight**- white she-cat with green eyes

**Hawkfeather**- reddish ginger tom with pale blue eyes

**Goldenpelt**- mottled golden she-cat with amber eyes

**Dapplefur**- tortoiseshell she-cat with green eyes

Apprentices

**Larkpaw** –gray she-cat with darker flecks and blue eyes

**Minnowpaw** –light gray and white she-cat with blue eyes

Queens

**Nightpool**- black and white she-cat with blue eyes

Elders

**Thistletail**- reddish ginger tom with amber eyes

**Moonpelt**- white she-cat with green eyes

_  
SkyClan_

Leader

**Bramblestar** – pretty brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes

Deputy

**Snowfall**–white and gray she-cat with ice-blue eyes

Medicine Cat

**Lilyfoot**- light blue-gray she-cat with blue eyes, white legs and tail tip

**Apprentice, Littlestep**- small, slim silver tabby she-cat with amber eyes

Warriors

**Poppynose**- ginger and white she-cat with startlingly pink nose

**Cloudpelt**- white tom with dark blue eyes

**Apprentice, Berrypaw**

**Eagleflight**- dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes

**Apprentice, Rosepaw**

**Rainsong**- dark gray tabby she-cat with blue eyes

**Apprentice, Duskpaw**

**Thistletail**- dark brown tom with amber eyes

**Icefang**- all-white tom with ice-blue eyes

**Mintfur**- very light gray she-cat with light green eyes

**Barkstripe** – dark brown tabby tom with green eyes

**Badgerfang**- black and white tom with amber eyes

**Hailstorm**- white tom with amber eyes

Apprentices

**Berrypaw** – pale tabby tom with startlingly pink nose and amber eyes

**Rosepaw**- cream she-cat with bright oink nose and green eyes

**Duskpaw**- dusky brown tabby tom with amber eyes

Queens

**Brookflow**- silver tabby she-cat with blue eyes; mother of Hailstorm's kits Featherkit (solid gray she-cat with blue eyes) and Pebblekit (dark gray tabby tom with blue eyes)

**Brightcloud**- tortoiseshell she-cat with amber eyes; expecting Bramblestar's kits

Elders

**Flowertail**- gray-and-white she-cat with green eyes

**Seedfur**- speckled gray tom with amber eyes


	21. Chapter 18

**Hello! Sorry I haven't updated this one in a while...I was busy working on my other story, Through the Fire and the Flames. Anywho, hope you like this chapter!**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! It made me happy reading what you had to say!**

**_  
Chapter Eighteen_**

Spottedpaw was back in Fourtrees, the full moon shining brightly, surrounded by countless glittering stars, the four great oaks rustling quietly. A huge wave of relief caught in her throat, and she let out a huge sigh. Only now did she fully realize how afraid she'd been that StarClan had forgotten her and abandoned the Clans to their fate. She'd almost began to think it was hopeless.

She sat down and curled her tail around her paws, waiting for StarClan to appear as they always did. They could take as long as they wanted, now that they were talking to her again.

Sure enough, a cat soon pushed its way out of the ferns and bracken that ringed the clearing. But it wasn't the cat Spottedpaw was expecting.

"Tawnykit?" Spottedpaw gasped, surprised and delighted.

With a squeak of joy, Tawnykit hurled herself on her sister, fur bristling with excitement. Spottedpaw let herself be bowled over, batting at Tawnykit's downy fur with gentle paws until Tawnykit rolled off her onto the ground.

The cream-colored kit scrambled to her paws quickly and stood. "StarClan is letting _me _talk to you!" she boasted, puffing out her chest.

Spottedpaw stifled a purr. "What's the message this time?"

Tawnykit sat down hard, suddenly all business, staring up at her sister with wide, serious amber eyes. Spottedpaw couldn't suppress a shiver at the sudden change from playful, mischievous kit to wise member of StarClan.

"The time is running out," Tawnykit meowed, her high-pitched kit's voice suddenly old and wise and heavy with countless secrets. "More and more cats, young and old, come here ahead of their time, and more will after them…including two who matter most, though not all who are will join them if you can defeat the bane of the forest."

"I won't let anyone else die!" Spottedpaw meowed fiercely, fresh pain at the death of poor Rosethorn slicing her open like a new wound.

Tawnykit stared at her, eyes sad and hopeful at the same time. "It is already too late for some," she whispered sorrowfully. "They will join us no matter what you do. But there are still some who might still be saved," she added, "if you can defeat the bane of the forest."

"I will," Spottedpaw promised, ignoring her sister's first words, about those who mattered most to her dying no matter what. _It's never too late! The future isn't set in stone! _she thought fiercely. "Um…what is the bane of the forest?" she added, doubting they would tell her but still thinking it was worth a shot.

Tawnykit just looked at her.

"Right," Spottedpaw muttered. "Guess you can't tell me that. True freedom and everything."

Tawnykit sighed, her face crestfallen. "I would if I could," she meowed.

Spottedpaw instantly felt sorry for making Tawnykit feel bad, the guilt overcoming her irritation. "Oh, it's okay," she purred, licking the top of Tawnykit's head. "It's not your fault."

Tawnykit beamed at her. "Thanks. I've missed you!" she added, rubbing her head against Spottedpaw's forelegs.

Spottedpaw swallowed hard to get rid of the lump in her throat. "I've missed you too," she meowed, nuzzling the tiny body.

Tawnykit purred happily and leaped on her again. They tussled for a few minutes on the ground, Spottedpaw feeling the weight of the prophecy vanish, until Tawnykit sighed and sat.

"It's time for you to go now," she meowed, sniffing sadly. Spottedpaw stood and shook her ruffled fur back into place, her worries, Tawnykit's warning and the prophecy's burden settling back onto her shoulders.

"It's okay," Spottedpaw comforted the little kit. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Tawnykit replied. "I'll visit you lots more!"

Fourtrees and Tawnykit faded quickly away, Spottedpaw blinking open her eyes in her nest by the fern tunnel just as the cats that had left returned from the Gathering, Crowflight among the first, bounding forward and purring loudly as he saw her. Spottedpaw felt a thrill of terror turn her veins to ice. _Please, please don't let him die!_ She begged silently, Tawnykit's ominous words echoing in her head.

_More and more cats, young and old, come here ahead of their time, and more will after them…including two who matter most… two who matter most…matter most..._

_Not Crowflight!_

**Ooh! Cliffie! Will Crowflight die???**

**Review, please! Tell me what you think!**

**I'll try to update soon!**


	22. Chapter 19

**I'm sorry it's been so long since I updated! I've been working on Through the Fire and the Flames, and finals are coming! I'm really sorry! I'll try to speed it up!**

**_Chapter Nineteen_**

Crowflight touched his nose gently to hers, taking in her bristling fur, arched back, and wide eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

She settled on telling him a half-truth. No use scaring him with prophecies of doom. Not that he'd be scared for himself, but he'd be scared for her, and how the deaths would hurt her, and if she was hurt, he'd be, too. Besides, she had a dark feeling that saying the prophecies out loud would make them come true sooner, although it probably wouldn't matter. "Bad dream," she meowed, smoothing down the ruffled white fur on her chest.

"Oh," Crowflight murmured sympathetically, and licked her ears comfortingly. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

Spottedpaw swallowed hard, seriously debating telling him about her dreams. Would it help to tell someone? Maybe. But what good would it do? How could he help her fulfill the prophecy? Besides, she could hardly believe that she was supposed to save the forest. How could he? "Not right now," she sighed, leaning into him, drawing warmth and comfort from his fur. She felt cold all over, like when she'd fallen into the river. To take her mind of the morbid business of thinking about who was going to die, she asked, "So, what was the news?"

Crowflight searched her face, recognizing the subject change for what it was, but didn't press. "There were a lot of announcements. Um…" His amber eyes narrowed as he remembered. "Birdsong of WindClan had her kit, in RiverClan Dapplepaw became Dapplefur and Ripplepaw became Rippletail, Brookflow of SkyClan had her kits and Brightcloud moved to the nursery…oh! Littlepaw became Littlefoot – you remember her, right? The SkyClan medicine cat apprentice? – Goldenpelt's kit was apprenticed to Barkstripe, Breezetail's kits are almost old enough to become apprentices, and your friend Blackpaw was made a warrior. Blackstorm's his name now." His amber eyes glittered. "He asked about you."

"What did you tell him? You didn't bite his head off, did you?" Spottedpaw teased.

Crowflight smiled. "No, but I was getting very close. He was getting really annoying; wouldn't stop pestering me to tell him how you were doing. Finally I told him to go mind his own business, and he stalked off." He hesitated, then coughed a little. "He seems to really like you. _Really_ like you."

Spottedpaw grinned. "Whoa, jealous much?"

Crowflight protested half-heartedly. "No, not at all."

"Sure." Spottedpaw rolled her eyes. Crowflight nudged her playfully and she shoved him back. Letting out a pretend yowl of shock, he sprawled over onto the ground.

Spottedpaw, in between laughs at Crowflight, who was now staggering around like a three-legged badger, gasped out, "Was that all?"

Crowflight staggered for real this time and blinked. "Uh, yeah."

Spottedpaw felt her heart skip a beat. "What else was there?"

Crowflight seemed to consider lying, but decided to tell her the truth. "Two cats from WindClan are dead," he meowed softly, meeting her eyes with a sympathetic, gentle amber gaze.

As sad as the news was, all she felt was a huge sense of still relief. For a heartbeat, she'd thought it was something to do with ThunderClan. Crowflight's next words ripped that feeling away from her and tore a hole in her heart.

"Rushingwind…and Heatherpaw."

Spottedpaw just gaped at him. Heatherpaw, sweet, friendly Heatherpaw, dead? She hadn't known her that well, but she'd seemed like the kind of cat no one could help loving. How could Heatherpaw be dead?

She shook her head. "No," she whispered. "You're wrong."

Crowflight licked her ears. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "She'd gone out to hunt during an assessment this afternoon, and they found her lying next to a rabbit hole with her neck broken. They think she was chasing a rabbit, didn't see the hole, get her foot caught in it and fell and broke her neck. I'm sorry…I know you liked her."

Spottedpaw didn't hear those last seven words. Gone out to hunt? Found dead? Her vision of Rosethorn's death came back to her in a rush. Hunting alone, no other cat to be seen, then suddenly murdered. Heatherpaw's death could be natural, but what if it wasn't? Two cats, Rushingwind and Heatherpaw, dead within the same moon? _Cats die, not that quickly_, she thought. And besides, with a creepy death-foretelling prophecy hanging over the Clans, Spottedpaw would bet a moon's worth of fresh-kill that it was Rosethorn's murderer. He – or she – must've broken Heatherpaw's neck after they killed her to hide the evidence. It must've been a surprise attack, because sound travels on the moor, and Heatherpaw would've put up a fight if she could, a fight that would've been heard by somebody.

She thought back to Lakefur, telling the Clan of how he found Rosethorn. The ginger warrior had left a few minutes before the dawn patrol, and she remembered seeing Lakefur leave right after the patrol. What if the killer hadn't had time to hide the cause of Rosethorn's death like he might've with Heatherpaw's? She had to check. Heatherpaw's body would still be in the middle of the camp for the vigil. She just had to get to the WindClan camp. But how?

"Spottedpaw? Earth to Spottedpaw."

She blinked, and Crowflight stopped waving his paw in front of her face. "Are you okay?" he asked anxiously. "You spaced out."

"I'm fine," she meowed reassuringly. "But I've got to go talk to Whitestar."

"Okay. I'll wait for you."

"Thanks," Spottedpaw called over her shoulder, already on her way.

She heard voices murmuring inside the den, so she curled her tail around her paws and settled down to wait. Her curiosity got the better of her and she pricked up her ears.

The deep, grumpy tone was definitely Jayflight's. "At the Gathering, Mudstripe-" _That's the WindClan medicine cat, _Spottedpaw remembered "- was telling me about how the early frost we've been getting killed off a lot of his supply of marigolds, and Sootbird sliced open his pads and Ashtail cut herself up in some brambles. He used up what he had stored treating Kestrelpaw, and before he could gather more, the frost killed them off. We've got plenty still; do you mind if I head over there and take him some?"

"Not at all. Get an apprentice to go with you."

Spottedpaw knew this was her chance.

"Take-"

Scrambling to her paws, Spottedpaw poked her head in and coughed politely. "Hello."

Whitestar looked up, startled. Jayflight narrowed his eyes at her.

"You heard our conversation, didn't you?" he snapped. "Don't your mentors teach you young cats not to eavesdrop?"

"Redfoot's an awesome mentor," she sniffed. "Anyway, could I be the apprentice? I'd love a chance to get out of camp!"

Whitestar laughed. "I don't see why not, as long as Jayflight says it's okay."

Spottedpaw turned and stared imploringly at Jayflight, making her amber eyes big and hopeful. Jayflight grumbled under his breath and sighed.

"Fine," he growled. "She can come."

Spottedpaw cheered, withdrew her head and padded back to Crowflight, smiling grimly. _I'll find out what happened to you, Heatherpaw,_ she promised, glancing up at the sky. It was turning that pale gray it does just before dawn, and a single lone star shone brightly. _I'll find the truth._

**Once again, I'm sorry! Review please!**


	23. Chapter 20

**No one reviewed my last chapter, even though I had 14 hits! I'm so sad! *sniff***

_**Chapter Twenty**_

Spottedpaw trotted slowly through the WindClan camp entrance, huffing. Her limp was almost unnoticeable, her ribs didn't hurt her, and her scratches had long since healed, but she was terribly out of shape, and she hated it. Jayflight glanced over his shoulder to see how she was faring; his blue eyes sparkled with amusement as Spottedpaw hauled herself wearily after him. Jayflight slipped inside, the WindClan guards nodding him in once he explained why he was there. One of them, a young brown tabby tom, snickered as Spottedpaw paused for breath before joining Jayflight, and that did it. Spottedpaw was tired and aching and being made fun of was the last straw.

"I like to see you fight a dog and be forced to stay in camp for _moons_ to heal!" she snarled. "Let's see if you can walk across the territories and not be out of breath!" She glared at him, daring him to say something else, and pushed past him, stalking into the camp with her tail and head held high.

Jayflight was waiting for her, his marigolds by his paws. "Lost your temper there," he remarked, his whiskers twitching with silent laughter.

Spottedpaw blushed hotly, realizing what she'd done. "I guess," she mumbled.

Jayflight chuckled. "'I guess'? I'd say you did! But don't worry," he added at her anxious, embarrassed expression, "he was asking for it."

Spottedpaw smiled. _The look on that tom's face _had_ been priceless_, she admitted to herself with a mental snicker. "Thanks," she added.

Jayflight nodded. "Ready now?" he asked gruffly.

Spottedpaw quickly smoothed her ruffled fur. "Yeah."

"Okay then. Let's go." He picked up his herbs and strode quickly to the abandoned burrow in the ground that was Mudstripe's den, then set the flowers down beside its entrance. "It's Jayflight!" he called down the hole. "I brought some marigold."

A ruffled-looking brown tabby tom, his fur striped with darker lines, emerged. "Oh, thank StarClan!" he gasped. "Ashtail's scratches are infected!" He scooped up the marigold and trotted quickly to a little shady spot in the camp barrier where a gray tabby she-cat lay on her side, Jayflight following.

Spottedpaw felt slightly unsure of herself. Heatherpaw's body lay in the middle of the camp still, although the elders would be taking it out soon to bury it since it was dawn now. The limp bundle of tabby fur looked small and empty without Heatherpaw's spirit and happiness to fill it. Spottedpaw swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. She had to go and check, but was it okay if she went over to Heatherpaw's body, or did she need to have permission?

"Did you know her?" a stern voice asked behind her. Her heart leapt into her throat in terror and she whirled around, startled. She found herself starting into the amber eyes of Cloudstar, the WindClan leader.

She gulped and nodded wordlessly.

Cloudstar almost smiled. "She was my niece, you know," he meowed softly, flicking his tail at Heatherpaw's body.

"I'm sorry," Spottedpaw whispered. "She must've meant a lot to you."

Cloudstar blinked once. "She did to everyone who met her," he said. "You can go and say good-bye to her if you want, but make it quick. She'll be buried soon." He turned and left to go speak to Mudstripe.

Spottedpaw watched him go, feeling sad for the great white tom. She knew he'd never had any kits, so Heatherpaw must've been like a daughter to him. Slowly, she padded to Heatherpaw's body and knelt beside it, near Heatherpaw's neck. The few WindClan cats saying their last-minute good-byes shot suspicious glances at her, but when Cloudstar walked past and nodded at them they relaxed a bit. Relived that she wasn't going to be clawed, Spottedpaw reached out and pretended to smooth the messy fur, feeling and watching for what she somehow knew would be there.

And it was. Two neat, tiny bite marks in the side of her neck.

Spottedpaw quickly covered the marks, her first impulse to hide them now that she'd found what she came for. But then she remembered the sorrow in Cloudstar's eyes. He deserved to know how Heatherpaw had died, didn't he? But what if he blamed one of the Clans and started a war? She hesitated for a heartbeat. _StarClan? Any help? _she asked silently. Suddenly a scent wreathed around her, smelling of the cold, fresh wind that raced over the moors. _Heatherpaw!_

_You should tell him. He deserves to know. _And as quickly as it came, Heatherpaw's scent and voice were gone.

Spottedpaw hopped to her feet and dashed over to where Cloudstar was conferring with a dusky brown tom she recognized as WindClan's deputy. "Um, Cloudstar?" she asked, dipping her head in respect. The deputy glared at her. The polite thing to do would've been to wait until they were done talking, but any moment now the elders would take Heatherpaw away for the burial.

"Yes, ThunderClan apprentice?" Cloudstar growled, voice tight with anger. Spottedpaw swallowed hard.

"There's something I think you should see," she continued, holding her head high and standing straight, refusing to be cowed by Cloudstar's irritation.

The deputy rolled his eyes. "Go and bother your own Clan, little apprentice," he snapped. "This is important."

"Well, so's what I've got to show you," Spottedpaw retorted. _Come on, hurry up, they could take her away any second!_

The deputy spluttered with indignation, but Spottedpaw ignored him and focused on Cloudstar. "Please," she begged, glancing behind her to make sure Heatherpaw was still there.

For a heartbeat that seemed to last for seasons, Cloudstar eyed her with an unreadable expression. Then he purred, so unexpectedly Spottedpaw jumped.

"You're not short of courage, that's for sure," he chuckled. "You remind me of Heatherpaw."

She dipped her head again. "Thanks," she whispered, and whisked around and trotted to where Heatherpaw's body lay. Cloudstar followed, although a bit reluctantly.

Like she had before, she parted the tabby fur on Heatherpaw's neck, revealing the two bite marks. Cloudstar froze at her side.

"You found this?" he whispered, staring at the marks and then into Spottedpaw's eyes.

She nodded. "I think the killer broke her neck afterwards, to hide the bite marks. Who would look for them if they already thought she'd died from a broken neck?"

Cloudstar looked back at the dead body of his niece, and Spottedpaw timidly ventured, "Shouldn't her parents be told?"

Cloudstar's head whipped back around, and Spottedpaw found it hard not to flinch from the raw sorrow and growing fury in his eyes. "She has no parents," he growled. "I took care of her. Do you know who did this?"

Spottedpaw thought. "I don't know exactly who, but I know it's a cat, probably a rogue, and he's killed before – he murdered Rosethorn, one of our warriors, too."

The leader bared his teeth. "Whoever it is will wish they'd never been kitted," he snarled, and Spottedpaw blinked in alarm. He had his Clan to take care of – he couldn't be obsessed with hunting and tracking down the killer, too.

"Please," she whispered, don't tell your Clan. Forget about this." She winced – as soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how weak they sounded. _Forget about your dead niece who you loved like a daughter and the new, disturbing truth about how she died! _"Um, I mean-"

She stopped as Cloudstar slowly turned to stare at her, tail twitching. "I don't need you to tell me how to run my Clan, or myself," he warned.

"I know," Spottedpaw hurriedly reassured him, trying to figure out how to phrase her next words without sounding big-headed or know-it-all-ish. "It's just that, StarClan's already decided how to deal with the murderer, and you need to run your Clan."

Cloudstar blinked and opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Jayflight called for Spottedpaw from outside the camp.

"Come on! Do you want to join WindClan?"

She muttered a rushed "thanks for your time" to Cloudstar – _Great StarClan, I sound stupid! _- and hurried to meet the medicine cat, praying that Cloudstar would listen to her. _I hope you weren't wrong about telling him, Heatherpaw, _she thought, glancing up at the clear sky. _Oh, I hope Cloudstar doesn't do anything stupid……_

**I wasn't planning on this chapter at all - Spottedpaw going to WindClan and telling Cloudstar - but it felt right. Wonder what'll happen next? Suggestions on Cloudstar's reaction? **

**Please, please, please, please review!**


	24. Chapter 21

**I'm SO, SO sorry I haven't updated in over a month! My reasons: a) practically every time I found a large, uninterrupted widow of time to just sit down and work on it, I had to get off or a member of my rather large family got to it before I could, b) high school, c) every time I tried to start this chapter, what I wrote just didn't feel right, and d) my grandma got really sick and I need to help take care of my family.**

**Forgive me??? Please?**

**On a happier note, thanks to those who reviewed and alerted this story! It means a lot :) Thanks!**

**Okay, this chapter's going to be sad, and it's going to have some drama in it, too... **

_**Chapter Twenty-one**_

Spottedpaw, finally allowed to be part of normal Clan life again, fell back into the normal routine gladly, relived to get away from crabby Jayflight. There was no news from Cloudstar or really any sign of anything unusual the next few weeks, which partly made Spottedpaw relived, partly apprehensive; it felt like the stillness of the air before a great storm raged, but there was nothing to do but watch and wait until the storm broke. Every cat was feeling it; sentries were posted at all times, patrols were going out much more than normal, and the queens hardly let their kits play outside anymore. The rare sound of laughter seemed unnatural and was quickly stopped.

Lying in a warm patch of sunlight that spoke of spring's nearness, Spottedpaw watched a small black beetle crawl up the side of the rock she was curled up on and debated about asking to go out on another hunting patrol. She was alone - Crowflight was out patrolling the border with WindClan, Stormpaw and Fawnpaw hunting together, Redfoot and Mouseleap on another patrol; she would've been out in the forest, too, but the deputy, Icestorm, had said she was overworking herself and hadn't let her go. Her fur itched to be doing something; the unnatural stillness was going to drive her crazy soon. There was nothing she could do at the moment, as she'd had no recent dreams of StarClan, and that coupled with the weight of the ominous prophecy that foretold death was starting to make her short-tempered and irritable. One of the best ways to deal with that, she found, was good, old-fashioned work. And besides, the Clan always needed more fresh-kill, especially with the new arrival of Dawnfur's kits. Spottedpaw smiled as she remembered the kits- little Mudkit, the ever-in-trouble, never-ending ball of energy, Cloudkit, the fluffy, careless, happy-go-lucky she-cat, Ivykit, the more reserved, cautious one. She decided to go pay them a visit and maybe play with the kits for a bit, hoping it would lift her spirits, and was half-way to the nursery when Leopardclaw appeared out of thin air and darted in front of her, making her start in surprise.

"Will you come talk with me? Now?" he asked, gesturing with his tail to the entrance. Spottedpaw sighed to herself; she couldn't put it off any longer, and she really wasn't doing anything else.

"Fine," she said, sounding less than enthusiastic.

Leopardclaw led them out to a secluded part of the forest to a tiny little glen, out of the way and quiet but not far from camp. He sat on one side of the clearing, amber eyes trained on Spottedpaw, and waited for her to sit, too. She picked a spot across from him and sat warily. This was _not _a conversation she wanted to have, but she knew it had to happen.

"Okay. What did you want to speak to me about?" Like she couldn't guess.

"Are you choosing Crowflight?"

Spottedpaw was relieved that he'd gotten straight to the point; she didn't want to cause him pain any more than she had to.

"Yes." Leopardclaw amber eyes burned, with anger at Crowflight, her decision, or maybe even sadness…she couldn't tell.

"But, Spottedpaw…I love you."

"I don't love you that way – you're a friend, or a brother, to me."

"Never?" he whispered, a world of pain in that one word.

Spottedpaw shook her head, hating how she was hurting him. "Never."

"But we'd be great together, I know we would!" Leopardclaw pleaded.

"You're not the cat for me, Leopardclaw. Crowflight is. I'm sorry…"

A tense silence seemed to weigh on the air before he spoke again. "So," he whispered, staring at the ground. His voice choked. "So, that it's then."

Spottedpaw nodded sadly. "But I'd like it if we could still be friends," she added, hoping that he'd accept. He really was one of her closest friends.

Leopardclaw's head snapped back up, and he bolted to his feet, stumbling backwards into the forest like he couldn't bear to be anywhere near her. "No," he said. "I can't. Good-bye, Spottedpaw."

"Wait, Leopardclaw!" But he didn't listen, didn't even acknowledge her words as he vanished into the forest, tripping over stones and roots in his haste and making the ferns and bracken rustle and shake wildly.

Spottedpaw stared after him, then slowly got to her paws. _No use staying here anymore. _"Well," she muttered to herself, "at least that's over with." But she in no way felt better – if anything, she felt worse. She really needed to go on a hunting patrol, forget herself in the hunt.

When she got back to camp, she glanced around for Leopardclaw's distinctive golden fur, but just a she'd suspected, he hadn't come back. She sighed. _I hope he comes back soon. Maybe he'll accept me and Crowflight being together - sometime. _

_Yeah, right._

She growled at herself, shook her pessimistic thoughts out of her head, and padded directly to Icestorm. The deputy looked at her for a second, then sighed resignedly, realizing that she'd just keep asking if he kept on refusing her. "Okay, you can go hunting. Who're you going with?"

Spottedpaw blinked. She could've hit herself. She'd forgotten about that new rule – no cat goes out alone. She glanced around for someone to ask, but the camp seemed deserted. Either the warriors were out patrolling, doing sentry duty, or getting some well-earned sleep, and Sagepaw and Thistlepaw were out training. No one was there to go with her.

"Um…"

Just at that moment, Fawnpaw came trotting into camp. _Maybe she'll want to go out hunting again? _Spottedpaw shot a glance at the deputy. "Just a moment!" She raced over to join her friend.

"Hey!" she called. "I want to-" She stopped, kicking up some dead leaves as she stopped short at the scared expression on Fawnpaw's face. "What's wrong?" She glanced over Fawnpaw's shoulder, her heart beating fast as a jackrabbit's with sudden fear, searching for Stormpaw's usual gray and white shape standing there like he always did – but not now. "Where's Stormpaw?"

"He's not here?" Fawnpaw's face looked stricken. "He dashed off after a squirrel, and I waited for him, but he didn't come back. I thought he might've come to camp…"

Spottedpaw didn't hear the last sentence; she was already racing to Icestorm as fast as her legs could carry her. "Icestorm! Stormpaw's missing!" she called, unable to wait until she reached him. The white deputy bounded up, all seriousness now.

"What? What do you mean, missing?"

"I mean he's not here, and he didn't come back from hunting!" she growled, skidding to a stop in front of him. Why was he asking stupid questions when Stormpaw was gone, with who-knows-what happened to him? They needed to be out there searching, now!

Icestorm blinked a little at her harsh tone. "I bet he's fine," he said, trying to comfort her, even though he looked like he didn't believe what he was saying. "Maybe he was just making dirt or something."

"Quit making assurances you don't believe yourself," Spottedpaw snapped, the words out of her mouth before she'd even thought about them. She gasped and slapped her tail over her mouth. "I'm sorry," she muttered.

Icestorm nodded. "It's okay," he meowed, then returned to business. "We need to from a patrol."

"I'll go," Spottedpaw said instantly, her mind filled with horrible pictures of Stormpaw dead, killed like Rosethorn, dead before she even knew what was happening to her. "And Fawnpaw should too, she knows where he was last."

"I'll join you. Go wait by the entrance, I'll go wake up Whitestar, and I'll go get Blazepelt and Smokefoot to come with us, too." Spottedpaw nodded and raced to Fawnpaw's side. The brown apprentice was standing where Spottedpaw had left her, looking like she'd never be able to move again. Her face was twisted with grief so strong Spottedpaw could hardly bear to look at her.

"He's dead, isn't he?" Fawnpaw asked Spottedpaw quietly.

Spottedpaw blinked. "Who knows? We haven't found him yet," she said, trying to comfort Fawnpaw without lying, but even to her the words were empty and hopeless.

Fawnpaw buried her head in her friend's shoulder, not saying anything, her shoulders shaking with sobs. Spottedpaw licked the top Fawnpaw's head, while watching for Icestorm out of the corners of her eyes. After what seemed like years, although in reality it was probably seconds, he reappeared out of the warriors' den, leading Smokefoot (a very dark gray tom) and Blazepelt (a ginger tom) after him, and went to go fetch Whitestar. The great white leader ran out of his den a heartbeat later, at the head of the three other cats.

"Let's go," he said tersely to the two apprentices, who instantly turned at dashed out of camp, leading the patrol on. Fawnpaw came to a skidding stop in a small glen like the one Leopardclaw had talked to Spottedpaw in. _Already that feels like it happened days ago_, Spottedpaw thought.

"He left in that direction," Fawnpaw said, gasping for breath and flicking her tail at a clump of bracken to their right.

"Okay," Whitestar meowed. "Smokefoot, Blazepelt, you go around that side, Icestorm, Fawnpaw, Spottedpaw – Spottedpaw!"

Too late. Spottedpaw had left as soon as Fawnpaw had pointed out the direction. Frantically searching for any trace of his scent, any sign of her brother, she bolted onward, following the trail, weaving around trees and rocks heartbeats before she careened into them. When she suddenly smelled blood, and the strongest scent of her brother yet, she slowed to a trot, almost doubled over in an effort to get air into her lungs. Finally, she staggered to a halt to get her breath back, ears pricked for the slightest sound that meant some cat was near. Nothing. The forest was too quiet, she realized. No birds or small animal noises disturbed the heavy silence. She walked forward slowly, almost unwilling to see what lay in front of the thick fern bush that blocked her vision.

She pushed them out of the way, and couldn't choke back a wail of sorrow. Stormpaw was collapsed on his side, drenched in scarlet blood. She crept nearer, bowing her head against the crushing sense of loss. She touched his side with her nose, jerking backwards when he twitched. _He's alive! _"Whitestar! Come now!" she screamed.

Seconds later, her leader and the rest of the patrol came crashing through the undergrowth. "What is it?" Whitestar panted, yellow eyes opening wide at Stormpaw's body. He quickly raced forward, and started nosing him all over.

"Come on," Spottedpaw urged. "Let's get him back to camp! Jayflight can save him, I know he can!"

Whitestar, his inspection done, just looked at her. "He's not going to make it, Spottedpaw," he murmured, and Spottedpaw's eyes filled with angry tears. "His injuries are too severe."

"Of course he'll make it!" Spottedpaw hissed. _How can he say that, when he's still alive? Jayflight saved me, and I was almost dead! _

Fawnpaw looked at her from where she was collapsed at Stormpaw's side, burying her nose in his fur and whispering in his ear. "No, Spottedpaw, he's not," he said sadly, eyes dull with grief.

Spottedpaw stared at them in disbelief. Why were they so determined to accept the worse?

Suddenly Stormpaw's mouth opened, making all of them jump. "Whitestar," he choked out, a bubble of blood bursting at the corner of his mouth. "Name me…"

Spottedpaw instantly knew what he meant, and so did Whitestar. He bowed his head over Stormpaw's body, voice low and rough with sadness. "I ask my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice. He has learned the warrior code and has given up his life in the service of his Clan. Let StarClan receive him as a warrior. He will be known as Stormcloud."

Stormcloud's eyes opened, his beautiful sky-blue eyes just like his mother's, and they stared up at his leader, expressing the thanks he couldn't say. Then his head slowly turned until he was staring into Fawnpaw's eyes. "I…love…you," he choked out, fighting to get the words out of his mouth. She blinked, tears streaking down her face and carving trials in her fur. "I love you, too," she whispered. Stormcloud then turned to look at Spottedpaw, his mouth forming words, though no sound other than that of his ragged breathing emerged. But Spottedpaw didn't need words – his eyes said all that needed to be said. She blinked back at him, trying to make everything she felt show itself in her gaze, and licked the top of his head. He smiled at her, and let his head roll limply to the side.

"Wait," Spottedpaw suddenly said, remembering something, as his eyes started to close again, and his breathing grew more and more slow and ragged. "Who did this to you?"

Stormcloud's eyes flicked open again. His mouth opened several times before he could force the sounds out. "Bane," he gasped. Spottedpaw felt an icy feeling spread through her veins as she remembered her latest dream of StarClan…

_Tawnykit stared at her, eyes sad and hopeful at the same time. "It is already too late for some," she whispered sorrowfully. "They will join us no matter what you do. But there are still some who might still be saved," she added, "if you can defeat the bane of the forest...the bane of the forest…" _

_Bane! That's what it is!_

"Bane…killer…stop him…be-before…" He gave a great shuddering gasp that shook his whole body, and his head dropped sadly back to the ground, his eyes empty and glazed. Fawnpaw let out a keening wail.

Spottedpaw stared, horrorstruck, and nudged him. "No, Stormcloud, you can't die! What were you saying? Stormcloud?" Her voice was a tiny sound, lost and scared sounding. Whitestar blinked sadly at her.

"He's gone, Spottedpaw."

She stared at him, her mind screaming that he wasn't dead, that he'd wake up soon, but her heart knew. It knew that he was gone where she couldn't reach him, where he'd never tease her or comfort her ever again. Her head drooped, and her heart felt hollow and empty. Behind her, Fawnpaw kept up her cry.

"Here, Icestorm, help me," she dimly heard Whitestar say, and Spottedpaw's head jerked back up.

"No," she said sharply, blocking their way to Stormcloud's body. "I'll do it, me and Fawnpaw." She was strong enough and tall enough to hold Stormcloud's body - she'd passed some of the warriors in height; in fact, if she hadn't been injured, she probably would've been a warrior by now.

"We'll do it," she repeated firmly. Whitestar studied her face, before stepping backwards. Spottedpaw helped Fawnpaw to her feet, and bent her head to close her teeth into Stormcloud's scruff.

With Fawnpaw helping her to carry Stormcloud's body, they slowly made their way back to camp, Spottedpaw's neck aching with the effort of holding him up so he didn't drag on the ground. Smokefoot, Blazepelt, Whitestar and Icestorm formed an honor guard around the two apprentices and their burden.

Other words from her dream echoed in her head, filling her mind until they were all she could think of. _More and more cats, young and old, come here ahead of their time, and more will after them…including two who matter most… two who matter most…_

_Stormcloud…_

She would've thought nothing could've wrenched her out of her numb state, but that was the way of things. Just when you think you've hit rock bottom, you discover yet another pitfall underneath.

Leopardclaw's dead body was sprawled a short ways before the entrance, hidden from the sentries' sight. His amber eyes stared vacantly up at the sky, empty and blank. His golden fur was tangled in twigs and leaves, his mouth slightly open.

As Spottedpaw just stared in dumb shock, her mother's sad voice whispered in her ear.

_Two who matter most._

***Sniff* I actually cried while writing this...I know it was kinda dramatic and sad, but I hope you liked it! Soon, Spottedpaw will set out to find Bane, and try to put an end to him, although I doubt it'll be that easy. **


	25. Chapter 22

**Hello! I actually finished this yesterday, but my Internet crashed and I couldn't upload it until now. This doesn't have a lot of stuff happening, it's more of a filler until the really exciting next one :) So it's not one of my better, or longer, chapters. But the next one will be!**

_**Chapter Twenty-two**_

Spottedpaw bowed her head as she watched the elders carry Leopardclaw and Stormcloud to the burial place, the rising sun tinting the forest a soft pink. Why was the forest so beautiful when something so awful had happened? If it had any decency at all, it should be pouring, rain and wind lashing at the trees. But instead it was clear, bright and colorful.

Spottedpaw knew that her brother and Leopardclaw were happy with StarClan, but she missed them, so much it felt like her heart would shatter into a million tiny pieces under the weight of her sadness. She wanted more than anything else to have them sitting next to her again, but wishes like that only made her feel worse. Crowflight stood at her side, his silent comforting presence helping more than anything he could say. Spottedpaw watched until Stormcloud's bushy white tail tip, dusty from dragging on the ground, vanished into the bushes, then turned and buried her face in Crowflight's dark fur.

* * *

Spottedpaw itched to be out of the camp. The silent, pitying glances and sympathetic murmurs her Clanmates gave only made the still, horrible emptiness inside her grow bigger. She knew they were only trying to help, but what she really wanted right now was alone time. And besides that, the tension in the air was becoming unbearable – the murderer had never struck so close to home before. The air thrummed like it does right before a huge storm breaks; cats jumped at sudden noises and Clanmates appearing too quickly out of their dens, and already a fight had almost started between two warriors over whose fresh-kill was whose.

Spottedpaw looked over at Crowflight, who hadn't left her side since he and his patrol were summoned back to camp after the discovery at Leopardclaw's body. She was more grateful for him than words could say, but she just felt like being alone for a while, long enough for her to start to come to grips with what had happened, compose herself, plan her next move.

And there was no way it was going to happen while she was holed up in camp.

The only thing was, no one in their right mind would let anyone out into the forest while the killer was out there. Whitestar had sent Icestorm on a patrol after the burial to see if they could find the assassin or at least signs that could them to him; Whitestar had wanted to go himself, but someone had to stay at camp and keep order, and Icestorm had flat-out refused to stay home. So how could she convince Crowflight to let her go?

She would never just slip out without saying so; that would make him worry and probably cause chaos as cats thought she was kidnapped or something. But on the other paw, Crowflight would want to keep her safe, here at camp. Personally, she thought she'd be okay; with Icestorm's patrol out, Bane would be careful to keep himself hidden, and she wouldn't go far – just to the top of the ravine. And besides that, she had a prophecy to fulfill. It wasn't her time.

She would just have to see how he reacted. "Crowflight, do you mind if I leave camp for a bit? I need some time alone."

He immediately shook his head. "Spottedpaw, do you have any idea how dangerous it is out there?" he asked intensely, flicking his tail at the tunnel entrance.

He was taking it better than she'd thought he would. At least he hadn't blown up at the suggestion. "Crowflight, please! I can't stay here," she pleaded, flinching as Lakefur padded past, throwing her a sympathetic look.

Crowflight licked her ears, and Spottedpaw realized that he understood how she felt. "I just don't want to lose you," he whispered. She purred and licked him back.

"You won't," she promised. "I've got things I need to do first," she added, pouring all her certainty of her not dying into her voice.

Crowflight blinked, feeling the weight of her words. Spottedpaw saw the internal battle raging inside him.

"Okay," he finally sighed. "But please, don't go too far. I can't come with you?" he added.

Spottedpaw shook her head.

He sighed again. "It was worth a shot," he muttered. "Be back soon, before the sun sets, okay?"

She rubbed his cheek. "I will. Go get some sleep, alright?" She turned and discreetly left through the dirt-place before any cat asked awkward questions.

As soon as she left camp, her tension eased, and she took a deep breath, enjoying the peace. At the top of the ravine, she settled down comfortably, making sure that she could see both the forest and the camp below.

Okay. Bane had to be somewhere in the forest, as he was able to get from place to place so quickly, which also meant he knew the forest well, too. And since he'd killed cats from all four Clans, he had to live where he could easily get to all the territories…assuming he had a permanent place he stayed at, which would be stupid for such a wanted cat. And there was no way to plan Bane's next move, either, as his attacks were so random. She had nothing to work on; if she didn't know where he stayed or where he'd strike next, then how could she ambush him? How would she know where and when to attack? Spottedpaw growled to herself in frustration. She knew she was at a disadvantage; she was only an apprentice, and her fighting skills weren't up to par, considering how she'd had to stay in camp for her ribs and paw. How could she defeat a strong, experienced killer who'd killed more cats than she had paws, without his victims able to do a thing about it?

She looked up at the sky. "Now would be a great time for some help," she suggested to StarClan, and waited until she was almost sure they wouldn't answer.

Just as she sighed and started to stretch the stiffness from her legs from sitting on the cold, hard stone, she heard her mother's voice. _Oh, dearest, don't doubt so much. _

Spottedpaw froze.

_We care about Bane just as much as you do…while we can't kill him ourselves, or directly help, we'll send signs to guide you. You are never alone._

Spottedpaw smiled, already feeling more confident. As always, her mother had read her mind, all her fears and doubts and questions. And as usual, she knew exactly what to say to make her feel better.

"Thanks, Mother," she whispered. "Are…are Stormcloud and Leopardclaw happy there?" she added after a moment of hesitation.

_They're fine. They miss you, but they are happy. They're proud of you. And Leopardclaw knows now._

Spottedpaw's breath whooshed out of her in relief, although thinking about them made her heart ache even worse. At least Leopardclaw understood, and wasn't mad at her anymore.

Suddenly, a mournful wail shattered the calm forest, the cry of a cat whose hope had deserted him. Spottedpaw jerked out of her thoughts and bolted to her feet. After a moment of hesitation, she raced down to the camp, to where the scream had come from. _Bane didn't raid the camp, he couldn't, oh no, please, no more death…_

She had to bite back a cry when she saw the cause. Bane hadn't attacked the camp, but Icestorm's patrol had brought back the body of their deputy.

Yet another piece of Spottedpaw's heart shattered. _Not again! Not so soon after Stormcloud and Leopardclaw!_

Her shoulders sagged and her head hung, the weight of every cat who'd died heavy on her conscience. For a heartbeat, she wanted the earth to swallow her up, spare her more of this. She didn't want to feel anymore. But then she repeated her mother's words to herself, and a rock-hard resolve pushed back the numbing despair. She wouldn't give up. StarClan was with her, and she had to be strong for her Clanmates.

For the second time that day, cats paid their respects to a loved Clanmate. Spottedpaw took her turn, then sat back with Crowflight and Fawnpaw as Icestorm's close friends and family crouched beside him. She would miss him; he'd been a good deputy, a good friend. She wondered who Whitestar would choose to take his place.

At the moment, the great white leader had his nose pressed to Icestorm's cold fur, his eyes closed. Spottedpaw couldn't believe how he was still staying strong like that; seeing the cats you were responsible for die, with you not being able to do a thing? She shuddered. _I never want to be a leader._

Moonhigh was almost there before Whitestar got to his feet and bounded to the top of the Highrock. He didn't need to call the summons – every cat was already there, staring up at him solemnly.

"I say these words before the body of Icestorm, that his spirit may hear and approve my choice. Flameclaw will be the new deputy of ThunderClan." His voice shook a bit, but he finished strongly. He leaped off the Highrock, fur shining brilliantly – _almost like a warrior of StarClan, _Spottedpaw thought – and placed his head on top of Flameclaw's.

The ginger warrior looked shocked at his promotion, but he accepted it with grace. "I promise to do my best for ThunderClan," he promised.

Spottedpaw thought Whitestar had made a good choice; Flameclaw had a strong, reassuring presence that made you feel at ease, and he was a good warrior and strategist, well-respected and liked. She could tell the Clan thought so, too – the usual cheering was subdued, but the approving nods said more than words.

As she waited in line to give her congratulations, her eyes flicked back to Icestorm's body, lying still and cold and shining an almost blinding white in the moonlight. She felt an icy determination fill her body, pushing back her grief. She wouldn't allow anymore innocent cats to fall prey to Bane. No more families torn apart, Clans shattered in sorrow and uncertainty.

No more.

She would bring Bane to justice. He was going down.

**So, I hoped you liked it...like I said before, not very exciting, or very long. But Chapter 23 should be pretty good! Please review!!!!**


	26. Chapter 23

**Sorry for the wait! I've been working on Fire and Flames, ym other story. Anywho, hope you like this chapter :)**

**_Chapter Twenty-three_**

Spottedpaw touched her nose to Icestorm's cold, stiff fur one more time, then backed away to let others have their turn, blinking away tears and sniffing. Crowflight joined her, pressing his side against hers, and buried his head in her shoulder, shaking. Spottedpaw licked the top of his head comfortingly, taking her mind off things by comforting him.

"Why don't you go get some rest?" she whispered. "You look beat. Who knows, it might make you feel better."

Crowflight stood still for a heartbeat, then lifted his head, his normally sleek smoky fur dull and dirty and his eyes bright with sadness. "Okay," he agreed tiredly, then hesitated. "Wait with me?"

Her paws itched to find Bane, but Crowflight looked like he'd topple over any second; it wouldn't take much time for him to fall asleep and it would give her time to plan, anyways. Spottedpaw purred, rubbing her head against his shoulder, and followed him into the warriors' den. She couldn't sleep there, being an apprentice still and all, but she could wait with Crowflight until he fell asleep.

And sure enough, within a minute or so his breathing went gentle and deep and his eyes stayed closed. Spottedpaw licked his head one more time, then carefully got to her paws from where she'd been curled up next to his nest, making sure not to brush up against any crackly bracken or step on anyone's tail, and edged silently out of the den. The moon was on the wane, not as bright as before, but dawn was still a ways off – good, because no one ought to realize she was missing until morning. She walked casually towards the secret exit behind the nursery – sneaking tended to draw more attention than it stopped – and carefully inched her way up the ravine, making sure no pebbles skidded down. Every second she expected to hear yowls from camp asking where she was going – now that Icestorm had died, they'd be posting even more guards than they already were – but mournful wails and whispers were the only noises in the quietness.

Once she'd made her way to the top, she paused and went over the mental list she'd thought up while waiting for Crowflight to sleep. StarClan might help her find him, but narrowing down where Bane might be could only help, she figured.

Okay: he seemed to be targeting ThunderClan more than others - he'd murdered four ThunderClan warriors, and she hadn't heard of any other Clan with a death toll that high, which most likely meant he was on ThunderClan territory. He probably didn't want to be found, either (duh), so where was a place not many cats went on ThunderClan territory?

There was near the Thunderpath; there wasn't really a need to patrol that border as much since cats only crossed it when they absolutely had no other choice, and who likes roaring, fast-as-lightening monsters screaming past very few seconds? Plus, there was the stench – try finding someone next to a reeking, hot, bitter smell that covers up everything else. But something didn't seem right – there weren't a lot of places to hide near the Thunderpath, and prey stayed away, so he'd have to venture out to catch some, which meant his scent should've been found. He probably didn't like the monsters or the smell, either, so the Thunderpath was pretty much out.

Then there was Snakerocks. No cat liked to go there, with adders prowling around, and there were plenty of hidey-holes. Prey tended to stay away from there, too, but not too far away, so food was easy to get. Snakerocks was in the middle of the forest, so he'd have good access to ThunderClan's camp, too…

Spottedpaw thought of several more possible places and growled to herself. Bane could be anywhere!

Eventually, she decided that she'd start in the middle of the territory and work her way outward. She rolled in a convenient patch of nearby mushrooms to disguise her scent, then padded quickly but quietly into the forest. Her heart raced with the thought of being so close to ending it all, but underneath it all was fear – what would he be like? What if he did manage to kill her, despite the prophecy? She was only an apprentice, and StarClan couldn't directly intervene…

Only one way to find out.

She didn't feel much like a hero.

Spottedpaw circled her way outward from the middle of ThunderClan territory, carefully but quickly inspecting each possible hiding place.

She came to Snakerocks next. Spottedpaw crouched in a clump of ferns, ears pricked and fur tingling, peering out at the moon-bleached mass of boulders. Thankfully, since it was night, the snakes should be asleep, she comforted herself. One less thing to worry about. Her pink nostrils flared, trying to catch Bane's smell; nothing, but he might have buried his scent by rolling in mushrooms, too.

Spottedpaw braced herself, cautiously reached out a paw, and leaned forward, ready to pad into the clearing, not wanting to be surprised.

When nothing happened as her paw poked into the clearing, Spottedpaw edged completely out of cover, shuddering as the protective forest shadows gave way to brightness. She felt glaringly exposed as she took another step towards the boulders, but she needed to make sure he wasn't sleeping in any of the gaps in the rocks.

Suddenly a dark blur streaked out of a pitch-black hole near the top of the boulder-pile. Spottedpaw froze as amber eyes glowed, flashing straight in her direction. Muscles rippled under a dark brown tabby coat turned pale in the moonlight.

Bane let out a rumbling laugh that sent a chill down Spottedpaw's spine. "Well, well, well," he drawled. "I must admit, I wasn't expecting to be found. Although, I will say it, those last few deaths were sloppily taken care of – my fault, of course. Somecat always seemed to come along right as I was about to dispose of the body." His nose sniffed the air. "Your smell…Now that I think about it, that was you, wasn't it?"

Spottedpaw lifted her chin, glaring at him defiantly. Now that she'd finally found him, her fear was buried under a nice hard layer of rock-hard determination. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, chasing away her sleepiness and the tiredness in her paws. "And now I've finally caught you," she growled.

Bane didn't seem to take her seriously at all. He laughed again. "Took you long enough, didn't it?" He lay down, curling his tail neatly over his paws. "I'm disappointed," he remarked casually with the air of someone commenting on the weather. "Out of all their finest warriors, a scrawny half-grown female is sent to bring me to justice?" He said the last four words sarcastically.

Spottedpaw's blood boiled, but she forced herself to take some deep breaths and calm down. _That's what he wants_, she thought to herself. _For me to come charging up there_. He could strike her down without even breaking a sweat if she raced up to confront him, since he had the higher ground.

"You did make it hard to follow you," she admitted, trying to keep him talking while she figured out an attack plan.

Bane proudly lifted his head. "I think Toadfoot and Briarthorn were my best," he reflected. Spottedpaw's fur crawled to hear him speak of killing someone that casually. Then she remembered something.

"Wait a second. You didn't kill Toadfoot - he died when the branch he was one broke, and Briarthorn's death was blamed on ThunderClan!" she protested.

Bane sneered. "That's what I wanted you to think, isn't it?"

Spottedpaw realized with dawning horror just how carefully Bane had planed everything.

"It was so amusing to watch you Clan cats squabble over who killed that RiverClan cat. Of course, I was hoping for a full-fledged battle, but you can't have everything."

"You monster!" she spat. "Toadfoot was a medicine cat!"

"That just made it all the more interesting," Bane yawned. "The ShadowClan tom, he was so surprised someone would dare attack one of your precious healers that he toppled off the branch himself and broke his leg. I simply put him out of his misery. And fabricating evidence was just too much fun."

"You are the most pathetic excuse for a cat I've ever met," Spottedpaw hissed. "How can you live with yourself? Briarthorn had kits!"

"A queen for a queen! Have you ever thought it was you and your precious Clans who brought the deaths on yourselves?" Bane snarled, his fur bristling. Spottedpaw jumped at his sudden change in mood. "You and your oh-so-noble friends killed my mate and kits!" he suddenly screamed. "My Sky!" His claws scored the stone underneath him, the rock squealing out in what sounded like mortal agony.

"We did no such thing," Spottedpaw argued, her blood cold, not wanting to believe him. "No warrior kills unless they must!"

"They killed her as much as they would have if they'd struck the killing blow! When our kits were born, we were stuck in the middle of ShadowClan territory. They found me first and drove me out, and when I tried to get back to my Sky, they beat me so badly I was stuck healing for two weeks! And then they found my Sky, and with kits not more than a half a moon old threw her out! I found her, but I couldn't protect her or hunt for her or anything, because I was in too much pain and still mending. We managed to make it to WindClan next, but the same thing happened, and the same thing with RiverClan, too! Then, weak, exhausted, starving, only one kit still alive, we came to ThunderClan, and what do you think happened? We were thrown out again! My Sky died a horrible, agonizing death just hours after my only kit still alive passed! You and your Clans killed her, and my kits! So," he ranted, teeth bared. "I decided I'd make each of your Clans suffer the pain I feel, ten times worse! I'd destroy your families the way you destroyed mine!"

Spottedpaw was frozen in place. _No, no, no…_Her Clan had killed those kits, indirectly, but they'd killed them! Spottedpaw felt betrayed – she wasn't Clanborn, but she loved her Clan like any purebred warrior.

Or at least, she had. Why hadn't ThunderClan or any other Clan at least given them food? Why hadn't they helped them?

Bane's chest was heaving, his eyes bright and frenzied. "You didn't think it was possible, that your Clans could do anything bad, did you?" he choked out a laugh that sounded more like a sob. "No, no, no! You thought the Clans were righteous and holy and could never do anything wrong!" He bared his teeth in a vicious smile. "Well, you thought wrong!"

"You're crazy!" Spottedpaw whispered, shaking. What was she supposed to do now? Everything she thought she'd known was turned on its head. At the very least, why hadn't StarClan told her that it was their fault Bane was murdering cats? Why hadn't they told her the whole story? Her heart felt like it had been shredded, then grinded into the dirt.

She was supposed to save the Clans form something they'd created, and nobody had thought she ought to know the truth?

Bane shrugged. "Maybe I am crazy, maybe I'm not," he mocked. He'd stopped making that horrible strangled laugh, but his mad eyes were amused and satisfied, like he knew how confused and betrayed she felt and thought it funny.

Spottedpaw's head was still reeling, and she tried frantically to gather her thoughts. _Ignore his story, think about that later! _

She had to get him to come down to her!

"If I'm such a scrawny half-grown weakling, then why don't you come here and prove it?" she challenged, lashing her tail and lifting her chin. "Too scared?"

There. It was childish and obvious, but no self-respecting tom could resist a challenge, especially one given by a she-cat.

Bane got to his paws. Spottedpaw narrowed her eyes in anticipation, all thoughts of Bane's story shoved to the back of her mind and focused on what she needed to do. Her claws slid out.

"Too scared?" Bane spat, hackles bristling. "I've killed more cats than you have paws! And you'll join that list soon enough!"

And then he sprang.

**Mwahahahahaha! Cliffhanger! Sorry, I couldn't resist :) The next chapter ought to be up tomorrow! Only a few more left, and the story's finished...**

**Review, please!**


	27. Chapter 24

**Hope you enjoy this chapter! It jumps around a little; sorry if it bugs you.**

_**Chapter Twenty-four**_

Spottedpaw hissed in shock and dove out of the way instinctively, but as fast as she was, it almost wasn't fast enough. She felt the ends of Bane's sharp claws tug at her fur as she leaped away, twisting in midair to rake at his face. Bane jerked backwards and her blows missed by a whisker-length.

_StarClan, he's quick!_

Bane leaped for her again, his teeth tearing at Spottedpaw's tail as she whirled away in the nick of time. She was purely on the defensive, barely able to keep herself from being torn apart, much less get in a few blows of her own. She whipped around to face him and backed away, not daring to turn her back on Bane for a heartbeat. A trickle of hot blood ran from one of the shallow scratches Bane had sliced on her head.

At least she was faster and smaller than he was, she thought grimly.

That gave Spottedpaw an idea. Her mind flew back to her lessons in battle-fighting, where she'd been taught the leap-and-hold move.

_It just might work!_

Bane, used to Spottedpaw frantically dodging and backing away from his attacks and not bothering to guard himself, yelped in surprise when Spottedpaw darted around behind him, then sprung unto his back and gripped with unsheathed claws, now beyond the range of his paws and in the position to inflict severe body wounds. He writhed and twisted as Spottedpaw slashed and tore and bit everything she could reach, then he dropped to the ground and rolled. Spottedpaw was ready and managed to jump off him before she was squashed.

They faced off again, both cats panting and Bane bleeding from several deep gashes on his back and flanks and bites on his ears but not finished – not by a long shot. He wasn't in a hurry to attack her again, Spottedpaw noticed in grim satisfaction.

They started to circle, no one wanting to rush the other yet. Then, without any warning at all, Bane sprang again, face twisted in a vicious smile. Spottedpaw gasped as her side was ripped, but set her teeth, ignored the pain – _pain is just weakness leaving the body_ – and whirled around as Bane raised his claws again. Her powerful back kick caught him right in the throat, and he fell back with a choking sound.

They parried and slashed back and forth, blood starting to make the ground slippery. Spottedpaw's muscles started to shake with exhaustion and pain.

She suddenly saw a glimmer of light out of the corner of her eye, and there they were, sitting on the boulders of Snakerocks – all of Bane's victims. Heatherpaw, Rushingwind, Briarthorn, Toadfoot. Rosethorn, Icestorm. And – her breath caught – Stormcloud and Leopardclaw. Even her parents and Tawnykit were there, though they weren't victims of Bane.

"Watch out," Rosethorn warned, "he's getting up."

Spottedpaw swung her head around, shaking blood out of her eyes, and there was Bane, heaving himself to his paws with a snarl. She hissed and bounded forward, then reared onto her front paws and started to crash down, but Bane got his act together and rose to meet her. They wrestled for a minute before Spottedpaw was able to get under his blows and shove right at his chest. Bane toppled backward, his own weight sending him flopping onto his side. Spottedpaw dove for him and started raking at his belly as Bane screamed in pain. She had to shake more blood out of her face, and as her grip unintentionally loosened, Bane slashed his hind feet at Spottedpaw's stomach and flung her off him.

"Look out!" her father Cloud called. "Duck."

Still blinded by blood and her body trembling in agony from her many gashes, Spottedpaw did what he said and felt a paw whistle overhead. Bane's momentum made him overbalance, and he fumbled.

"Unbalance him," Heatherpaw suggested. Spottedpaw gathered her strength and thrust forward in a powerful headbutt that sent Bane reeling.

"Follow up with frontal paw rakes," Briarthorn ordered. Spottedpaw obeyed, and Bane screeched.

"Drive him back!" Icestorm commanded. Spottedpaw slashed and bit and clawed; Bane was an aggressive fighter and didn't defend himself well at all, and his face was soon a mish-mash of cuts. But blood was making Spottedpaw blind, and every time she had to shake it out of her face, Bane would hit back and Spottedpaw started to feel like she was moving through mud, thick and slow. She couldn't feel the fiery pain any longer, and her vision was dimming.

Then Bane tripped.

Spottedpaw, using her very last ounce of power from her last reserve of strength, jumped on top of him and bit his neck, deeper and deeper until Bane stopped twitching.

He was dead.

She staggered off him, the world tilting crazily. The StarClan cats were getting clearer, not as transparent as they used to be.

"Find cobwebs now!" Toadfoot the ShadowClan medicine cat instructed."You're bleeding to death!"

Spottedpaw rolled over on her side to face a bush right next to her and hazily reached up. A wad of silky strands was stuck on a twig; she snapped it off and painfully twisted her neck around to her side, legs and belly, dragging the dangling cobwebs across her injuries. The white threads stuck to her cuts, and turned red within moments, but no more of her blood escaped from those two major gashes. Her other scratches she ignored, and she rolled over to press the lifesaving cobwebs in more firmly just as black dots swarmed her eyes

Her eyes drifted shut and she went limp.

The StarClan cats converged on the unconscious apprentice.

"It wasn't too late, was it?" Petal fretted, her starry nose nudging her daughter.

"No," Toadfoot said. Petal's shoulders slumped in relief. "Her breathing's not getting any shallower, and the cobwebs are stopping the blood loss."

"Out of all ways to die, Bane _tripped_?" Rushingwind wondered.

"Either way," Leopardclaw meowed proudly, "she still got him in the end."

"But will she even be able to be a warrior now?" Heatherpaw whispered. "Those cuts look serious…what if she becomes weak because she's lost so much blood? What if she limps because of those leg injuries?"

"Spottedpaw won't let little things like that stop her," Stormcloud reassured, although a flicker of worry showed in his eyes.

Icestorm bowed his head. "We can only wait," he muttered glumly.

Tawnykit got to her feet from where she'd been licking Spottedpaw's head. "I'll go tell the Clan where to find her," she squeaked. "They'll heal her and Spottedpaw will be all better!" She raced into the forest, her big kitten paws gliding over the forest ground.

"I'll go too." Cloud rose and followed his smallest kit.

"And we'll keep watch," Briarthorn said softly.

Jayflight pushed and shoved his way to Whitestar's den, muttering reassuring words to cats when he could. Spottedpaw was gone, and Jayflight prayed to StarClan that thoughtful, spunky young she-cat wasn't lying dead somewhere. Cats were organizing themselves into search patrols, but no one knew where to look. Doveflight, Spottedpaw's foster mother, was in a panic.

He called out at the entrance to Whitestar's den, but there was no answer. He waited impatiently for another few seconds, then went in anyways. Whitestar was curled up, asleep in his nest. Jayflight didn't blame him – the poor cat had had more than his share of troubles and problems – and hated to wake him up when he fully deserved and needed his rest, but he had to.

He extended a paw and poked Whitestar in the side. The leader's eyes opened immediately, and Jayflight had to force himself not to jump.

He opened his mouth, but before he could speak a word, Whitestar leaped to his feet.

"I know where she is," he said, and Jayflight barely had time to press himself against the wall of the den before Whitestar sped out. Jayflight blinked, confused, and when he reopened his eyes, a fluffy, gleaming kit was sitting in front of him. Jayflight's nose flooded with the smells of cold starshine and wild wind and warm green-leaf.

"I told him," the kit explained. "About Spottedpaw. You better follow him, 'cause Spottedpaw needs your leaves and lots of help."

A gray and white tom appeared next to her. "Hurry," he said.

Jayflight didn't need to be told twice.

Jayflight bent over double, his chest heaving and his side burning with a stitch that felt like a fiery splinter of rock being driven into him. He didn't think he'd ever run as fast as he just had. He'd paused just long enough to snatch herbs from his stores, then raced out with Whitestar and a chosen patrol to Snakerocks.

The young cat in front of him looked more brownish-red than her actual black and white due to all the caked blood in her fur. Even Jayflight, who was used to horrible wounds, had cringed. Spottedpaw had seemed like a very dead cat when they'd gotten there, but Jayflight figured StarClan didn't send them after a dead cat and had refused to give up when he couldn't hear a heartbeat. He had Crowflight, Redfoot, Fawnpaw (all had demanded they come) clean off the grime while he, with Whitestar's help, made poultices and crushed herbs – or, in the StarClan kit's words, his leaves.

Suddenly Fawnpaw gasped. "I hear a heartbeat!" she shouted. Jayflight, feeling a burst of wild hope, pressed his ear to Spottedpaw's chest listened too.

There it was! He guessed Spottedpaw had revived under the licking. With quick skill he continued to smear the poultices and herbs wherever he saw a cut; he'd have to make and out new ones on her when they got back to camp, but he didn't mind.

Once he was done, he had Crowflight, Fawnpaw and Redfoot carefully pick her up and carry her back. On a hunch, he padded up close to the boulder pile to a darker shape hidden inside shadows, Whitestar at his side.

They hissed and recoiled in shock. A massive brown tabby tom lay on his side, covered in blood as well, his teeth still bared and his empty amber eyes open and staring.

"What in the name of StarClan?" Whitestar whispered.

Jayflight mastered his shock and padded forward carefully. "He's dead," he reported after trying to find a heartbeat. He carefully pushed apart the cat's fur, and discovered two bite marks on the back of his neck. "Looks like our Spottedpaw killed him," he added, surprised. "I think this was the cat she was fighting – look at the size of those paws! I can only think of one or two cats in the Clans who could do that much damage to someone, and this isn't either one of them."

With a jolt, he remembered the prophecy.

_Only the warrior of shadows and starlight, in the Clan but not of it, can see what lies hidden to save the Clans._

He jerked his head up as he heard voices repeat it with him and he caught a glimmer of starshine out of the corner of his eye. Cats lined the boulders, most he recognized – Rosethorn, the she-cat who was Spottedpaw's mother, the kit and the gray and white tom, Icestorm, Leopardclaw, Stormcloud…

"It's finished," meowed Rosethorn with a smile.

Jayflight blinked. "Th-the threat is gone?" he asked, not daring to believe his ears.

The kit bounced up and down. "Uh-huh," she reassured, beaming. Spottedpaw's mother curled her tail around the kit and hushed her, and Jayflight realized that this had to be the stillborn kit he'd found that day ages ago in the forest with Spottedpaw and Stormcloud.

Even the sarcastic, serious Jayflight couldn't stop a wide grin from breaking through.

He looked up at the sky, streaked pink with dawn, then at his leader, who was smiling widely as well as he watched the StarClan cats.

"It's over," he repeated, voice shaking. No more murders, no more terror, no more hiding in their own homes! "It's over!"

Several days later, Spottedpaw woke up in Jayflight's den. She was stiff and sore and had to move gingerly, but she was healed of everything but a small limp and scars. Hunting and running wouldn't be as easy as they used to be, with her limp and all, but Jayflight had said that she could still be a warrior (not that she would've let her limp stop her anyways).

The day she woke up, she demanded to see Whitestar. Bane's story was eating her up inside, and she need to know the Clans' side of the story.

Whitestar heard her out about Bane and his family being cruelly driven from place to place until they died, then shook his head. "Bane didn't tell you the whole truth."

Spottedpaw let out a sigh of relief. She hadn't really believed the Clans would do that, but she'd needed to hear it anyways.

"Bane and his family weren't as innocent as he wants you to think. He and his mate - Sky? - used to live in Twolegplace; they weren't your typical kittypets, though. They drove away warriors who they thought went too close to the fence. But then, for some reason, they left Twolegplace and came into our forest. They stole food, fought with our warriors and even killed one –a young tom named Beechclaw - so we drove them out. Then, according to your story, they had kits in ShadowClan and were shunted from territory to territory. Bane seriously hurt or killed anyone who came near his family, and they were too dangerous to have around. They could've gone back to Twolegplace or left the forest, but they didn't, so they weren't as helpless as he made it sound. They had other choices, but they didn't choose to make them."

Spottedpaw nodded. It made sense now. All her insecurities and doubts vainshed. "Thanks, Whitestar," she sighed, feeling a huge weight lift from her shoulders.

"You're welcome, Spottedpaw." Whitestar left the den with a flick of his white tail.

Spottedpaw sighed again. Everything was finished, she thought with a sense of disbelief. She'd been living under the prophecy for so long she could barely realize it was over.

She wasn't sad, though; not in the least. The prophecy was fulfilled. Bane was dead, the forest was safe. It might take a while, but life would settle back to normal. The victims of Bane's killing spree would be in peace now, and their families and friends would move on. Leaf-bare was nearly over; Spottedpaw could smell the warm, earthy smell of green things growing, and the wind was getting less cold. Prey was coming back. She could be a normal Clan cat now; become a warrior, get an apprentice, serve her Clan, and maybe, she thought as she looked over at Crowflight's sleeping form, maybe even have kits. Spottedpaw laid her head on Crowflight's shoulder, and he purred drowsily in his sleep.

All in all, Spottedpaw thought, life was wonderful.

**Gasp! Just the epilogue left! Review please!**


	28. Epilogue

**So here it is - the end of my first story. If you have any suggestions for story ideas, let me know. This one skips around, too; it has a lot of time gaps in between. I hope you like it! **

_**Epilogue**_

A week afterwards, Spottedpaw was finally allowed to leave the den, and she and Crowflight went on a hunting trip, just the two of them. Spottedpaw was glad to escape the uncomfortable awe and gratitude of her Clanmates; she really hoped she could be a normal cat now that Bane was dead and the forest was safe - and without a prophecy hanging over her head. A peaceful, all-day hunt with her best friend and love seemed like a good place to start.

When they finally padded back into the camp that evening with loads of prey (most of it Crowflight's), Spottedpaw was surprised by the crowd waiting for them. She had a surge of terror, wildly thinking that somehow Bane was back from the dead, but then she saw the smiles.

Whitestar was perched on top of the Highrock. "Come forward, Spottedpaw," he meowed, grinning.

Spottedpaw left her prey by Crowflight and padded up. She had a sneaking suspicion of what he might do, and her heart raced with excitement.

"I call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice," Whitestar said. Spottedpaw's tail twitched with joy. "She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn. Spottedpaw, do you promise to follow the warrior code and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do," Spottedpaw said clearly.

"Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Spottedpaw, from this day forth you will be known as Spottedfur." Whitestar had thought hard about what to name her, and decided that this was the best – not only did it identify her, it was a reminder of the prophecy and what the spotted cat with fur of shadows and starlight had done. "ThunderClan welcomes you as a full warrior."

He leaped down and placed his head on top of hers. Spottedfur, eyes shining, licked his shoulder respectively.

"Spottedfur! Spottedfur! Spottedfur!"

Spottedfur purred joyfully as her Clanmates congratulated her, Crowflight and Fawnpaw louder than everyone else as they pressed up against her sides. A sparkle on the side of the clearing caught her eye, and there was her family and Leopardclaw, cheering with the rest, tails waving joyfully. Tawnykit was racing around in circles in excitement, and Spottedfur laughed.

She was a warrior!

Spottedfur hissed, gritting her teeth as a spam coursed through her body.

"Come on, Spottedfur," Jayflight said calmly. "Just a one more. Push!"

"What do you think I'm doing?" she gasped, twitching again with a groan.

Jayflight rolled his eyes. "Don't get smart with me, Spottedfur."

Spottedfur growled and panted for breath, then went limp as a small wet bundle slid onto a soft mossy nest, joining the four already there. She thought about hitting the grouchy medicine cat over the head with a paw or throwing his own herbs at him, but a call from outside the warm, dark, milk-scented distracted her.

"Is she okay?" Crowflight anxiously asked, peeking into the nursery.

"Just great," Spottedpaw rasped, lifting her head and nudging her kits to her belly, starting to lick them over. Crowflight hesitatingly padded in and went to Spottedfur's side.

"They're so tiny," he whispered. "They're beautiful!"

"They're ours," Spottedfur said softly in between licks. Her heart swelled with warm love for her family.

"What should we call them?" Crowflight asked, purring as a tiny gray-black she-kit squeaked at his voice.

Spottedfur touched that one with the very tip of her tail. "Featherkit," she suggested.

Crowflight nodded. "I like it. And Frostkit for him," he added, gesturing at a tom such a light gray he was almost white.

A tortoiseshell she-kit with a bright pink nose was named Berrykit, while her dark brown tabby brother was named Duskkit. Spottedpaw paused at the last one, a sturdy gray and white tom, and her eyes clouded with memories.

"And Stormkit," she murmured. Crowflight smiled and licked her head, beaming at his mate and children.

"Stormkit is perfect," he agreed.

"I call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon these kits," Whitestar called. "They would like to become warriors of ThunderClan, but must first become apprentices. Berrykit, from this day forth, until you have earned your warrior name, you will be known as Berrypaw. Thistlepelt, you are young, but Flameclaw has taught you well; I hope that his honor and leadership skills will pass through you to your new apprentice."

"Thank you!"Thistlepelt stepped forward, and Berrypaw stretched out her head and awkwardly touched noses with her new mentor.

"Frostkit, your mentor will be Bluestorm…"

And so the ceremony went on. Spottedfur felt her heart swell with pride and for each of her kits until she thought it would burst. Then it was her turn.

"It is unusual for kits to be trained by their parents," Whitestar said. "But no other kits are expected, and Spottedfur had proved herself more than worthy of an apprentice. Featherkit, step forward, please."

Featherkit, her big green eyes shining, bounced up.

"Featherkit, from this day forth, until you have earned your warrior name, you will be known as Featherpaw. Spottedfur, you have shown many times over that you are ready for the responsibility of training an apprentice, and Redfoot taught you the ways of hunting and fighting and the way of the code well. Pass on his skills to your apprentice."

Spottedfur touched her nose to her daughter's. "I will," she promised.

"You'll be wonderful," she whispered to Featherpaw.

Spottedfur watched as each of her kits were made warriors – Berrypaw to Berryleaf, Frostpaw to Frostfoot, Duskpaw to Duskstripe, Stormkit to Stormclaw. Finally, it was Featherpaw's turn.

"Spottedfur, is your apprentice ready to become a warrior?"

"She is," Spottedfur said, smiling at her daughter who was fit to bursting with pride.

"Then I call upon my warrior ancestors to look down upon this apprentice. She has trained hard to understand the ways of your noble code, and I commend her to you as a warrior in her turn. Featherpaw do you promise to follow the warrior code and defend this Clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do," Featherpaw replied strongly, tail and chin high.

"Then by the powers of StarClan I give you your warrior name. Featherpaw, from this day forth you will be known as Featherpelt. ThunderClan welcomes you as a full warrior!"

Spottedfur cheered happily, and moved forward with Crowflight to congratulate their kits.

Spottedfur sat next to Crowflight, her children (some with their own mates now) scattered around them. The Clan was silent, crowded around Flameclaw's cold ginger body, as Whitestar slowly jumped to the Highrock, his gray muzzle evidence of his old age. His deep voice wasn't as strong or loud as it used to be, but it still carried to all corners of the camp as he called the ritual's words.

"I say these words before the body of Flameclaw, that his spirit may hear and approve my choice. Spottedfur will be the new deputy of ThunderClan."

Spottedfur's jaw dropped, feeling like someone had hit her in the gut. No way, she thought dizzily. _She_ was deputy?

Crowflight nudged her up, beaming, and the Clan cheered. Spottedfur shakily walked forward to the Highrock. Whitestar climbed down stiffly and laid his head on hers. She gave him a lick, just like at her warrior ceremony, and stepped back.

"I'll do my best," she promised, still shocked, then whispered to Whitestar, "_Me_?"

Whitestar smiled. "What better choice could I make?"

Spottedfur swallowed, looking upon rows and rows of starry cats, their eyes gleaming at her. Then Whitestar stepped forward with a new spring in his step, looking younger than Spottedfur had ever seen him.

"Welcome, Spottedfur," he greeted with a smile, his deep voice clear with new strength. "Are you ready to receive your nine lives?"

Spottedfur took a deep breath and nodded. "Yes."

"Then with this life I give you compassion. Use it well to heal the hearts of cats whose souls have been hurt." He touched his nose to hers, and Spottedfur sighed as warmth and soft peace enveloped her with the comforting way a mother has with her kits. Whitestar stepped away, purring, and let Petal take his place.

Spottedfur received the life of hope from her mother, the strength to believe for better things even when the future seems bleak, then Cloud gave her a life of strength to protect every cat under her care. Heatherpaw gave her the life of friendship, to heal rivalries between other Clans, while Tawnykit gave her a life of youth, to keep on serving her Clan with the abilities of a young cat even when her fur turned silver with age.

Spottedfur swayed on her feet as liquid fire seemed to course through her veins.

Stormcloud gave her a life of courage, to keep on fighting even when it seems defeat is inevitable. Rosethorn gave her a life of faith, to trust StarClan and those around her, and Briarthorn gave her a life of love, to care for every cat like her own kits. After her came Icestorm, who gave her a life of endurance, to push on however long she may need to. And last of all, Toadfoot came forward.

"With this life I give you devotion. Use it well to serve your Clan to the utmost of your abilities."

Spottedfur was shaking, feeling like a stream about to overflow its banks. She barely managed to keep herself standing as her legs threatened to buckle underneath her. She'd had no idea becoming a leader could hurt so much…

She felt her strength begin to trickle back as the StarClan cats around her began to cheer her new name.

"Spottedstar! Spottedstar! Spottedstar!"

Spottedstar lifted her head with an effort and vowed that she would never fail her Clan.

Spottedstar curled up in her den, her old bones protesting the movement. She was old; her children's kits had kits…Mouseleap, her foster mother Doveflight, Fawnpaw (renamed Fawnpelt) and Redfoot had died, as well as her beloved Crowflight. Her muzzle was streaked with iron gray, and she had many scars added to the ones from her fight with Bane. Her limp had gotten worse nowadays. She was more than ready to join StarClan.

She wasn't worried, though. Her son, Frostfoot, was a perfectly capable deputy. In fact, she thought with a touch of dry humor, he did nearly everything except ceremonies and lead Gatherings. It had been peaceful for a long while now, although she'd been in her fair share of battles during her time…

She closed her eyes as her thoughts turned to the long years back when she and Crowflight were young warriors. She smiled drowsily, remembering hunting with him, with her kits, with her friends…sunlit days of playing with her kits in the forest...border patrolling…battles…

Her breathing slowed and slowed.

When she opened her eyes again, Crowflight was there with a smile, no longer gray and stiff but young and limber.

She leaped to her feet, feeling more spry than she had in years.

"I've been waiting," Crowflight said.

"So have I," Spottedstar purred, and pressed her side against his and sighing. "Come to take me home?"

"Yeah."

They turned and left Spottedstar's den, leaving behind a still, huddled bundle of gray-streaked white and black fur. Crowflight led her up into the sky, where the velvety darkness dotted with glowing stars grew into a warm forest stirring with prey and where her friends and family were waiting.

**The End**

**So? What do you think? Did it end well? Review please! **


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